JoJo's Alien Adventure
by Bigby the Big Bad Wolf
Summary: Ben has fought many powerful adversaries but is he ready to take on the world of Stands? (Will cover Stardust Crusaders through Stone Ocean)
1. Stands, Vampires, and Time Travel

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Ben 10 belongs to…I think Man of Action, while JoJo belongs to Hirohiko Araki.  
**

 **Bizarre Alien Adventures (One-shots)**

 **Stardust Crusaders**

A young man with brown hair, green eyes, wearing black sneakers, jeans, a black t-shirt, and a green jacket with a white stripes and a big number 10 on the right side, walked down the street, happily slurping a smoothie. This boy was sixteen year old Ben Tennyson, better known to many as Ben 10, wielder of the powerful alien device called the Ultimatrix, and Hero of the Universe many times over.

"Mmm," Ben said blissfully. "Still don't get why Gwen and Kevin can't stand smoothies. They're the best thing ever, with chili fries being a close second. Oh well." He slurped in contentment. Perhaps he could have taken his car to Mr. Smoothy's, but it wasn't that far and sometimes he enjoyed taking walks. Besides, now that he had brought up chili fries, he thought about picking some up before heading home.

As Ben made his way towards the Burger Shack, he paused. Perhaps he was just being jumpy, but he had the strangest feeling that he was being watched, and given his line of work it was highly possible. Ben briefly scanned the area but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. With that, Ben continued on his way, though still remaining alert.

But the feeling just wouldn't go away. If anything, it was getting stronger. Ben decided not to bother beating around the bush. "Alright." He said, gently putting his smoothie on the ground and turning back around. Ben found himself facing a vacant sidewalk. "Come out. There's no point in hiding." A light breeze brushed against his face in response. Ben knew that if Gwen and Kevin were here, Gwen would look at him in concern and ask if everything was alright while Kevin snarked about him finally losing it. But he just couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't alone. "Alright. Have it your way." He raised his left hand, revealing the Ultimatrix, a green and black device shaped similar to a gauntlet, with an interface that resembled a green hourglass. Ben touched the interface, causing it to pop up; a hologram of one of Ben's many aliens appearing above the screen.

What happened next, Ben wasn't quite sure. For a brief moment he felt as if something, a hand maybe, had just come in contact with the Ultimatrix despite him not seeing anything, and his entire world abruptly changed.

For one thing, he was definitely not on the same street. In fact, he was definitely sure he wasn't even in Bellwood. He was now in some alleyway that he had never seen before in his life, it was broad daylight compared to the nighttime back in Bellwood, and all of this had happened in a split-second.

"Where…where am I?" Ben asked himself. He made his way out of the alley, holding up a hand to shield his eyes from the glaring sunlight as he took a look around. It appeared like he was in some city that he didn't recognize. But what really caught Ben's interest was the writing on the various signs and boards. It took Ben a moment studying the words, which were obviously not English, to realize where he was.

"I'm in Japan?!" Ben's eyes were the size of dinner plates and his knees wobbled. He staggered back into the alleyway and collapsed against a wall, his mind trying to make sense of what had just happened to him. He paused. Now he was more certain than ever that something _had_ touched his Ultimatrix, and whatever that something was had to be responsible for sending him here. But, why send him to Japan? And how was it able to do something like that in the first place? And also, what exactly was it that had sent him here?

Ben shook his head. He hoped to find those answers soon but right now he needed a little help. He prepared to activate the Ultimatrix's communication function but paused when he saw that the interface was sporting a blue light instead of its usual green. "Recalibration mode? But why? This is getting weirder by the minute." Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, let me think. Some invisible…thing managed to send me all the way to the Japan and, as far as I know, just by touching me. I can't use the Ultimatrix right now, which means I can't contact anybody or just fly home. Not only that, but since the Ultimatrix is offline right now, I can't even use the translator function. Which basically means…I'm stuck." Ben grumbled to himself as he looked down at the Ultimatrix, which was still in recalibration mode. He sighed. "Well, I guess the best I can do is wait for this to come back online again. Hopefully I can run into someone who speaks English." He snorted as he started walking out of the alley. "Gwen always said that I should probably learn different languages on my own but would I listen? Oh no." Ben shoved his hands into his jean pockets. "I hate karma sometimes."

As Ben stepped back out the alley, he looked around, cringing as he realized that he couldn't make heads or tails of any of the signs that lay before him. And he was hesitant to ask directions because he didn't want to run up to someone and find out that they didn't speak English. He kept his eyes peeled for any American tourists but there were so many people hustling and bustling down the streets, he couldn't make any such individuals out. "Maybe I should just wait back in the alley."

Then Ben spotted something that looked promising. He spotted two men wearing uniforms and caps talking to each other as they went inside a building. Ben was sure they were police officers and that the building they had entered was a police station. Maybe he could get some help there.

 **. . .**

The moment Ben stepped inside he made a beeline straight for the bathroom, both as a means of checking to see if he was in the right building and so that he could plan out his story to the officers. There were plenty of officers standing around, talking to each other, though some were starting to notice the foreign teen present in their building. Ben picked up his pace towards the bathroom. Luckily for him, one officer stepped out of a room and Ben recognized the interior as that of a bathroom. In a flash Ben was inside and striding towards an open stall. Sitting on the toilet, Ben rubbed his forehead. "All I wanted to do was enjoy a nice smoothie and some chili fries. Is that too much to ask?" He whispered to himself. He looked at the Ultimatrix, annoyed that it was still recalibrating. "Come on, Ultimatrix. Hurry up!" Nothing but silence. Taking a breath, Ben planned out his story. He was a tourist who got separated from his friends so he went to the police but also really needed to go to the bathroom first. Ben winced as he mulled it over. Would they really believe that?

Just then the Ultimatrix started beeping, the blue light of the interface changing back into green. The Ultimatrix was finally online. Ben glared at his device. "You have the worst timing, you know that?" he muttered. Well, at least now he could get home easier. But first… "Activate Translator Code 10. Language: Japanese."

The Ultimatrix beeped again. "Translator Activated!" The device released a pulse of green light. Satisfied, Ben got out of the stall and headed towards the bathroom door.

 **. . .**

"Hey, kid!" A stern voice called the moment Ben stepped out of the bathroom. He turned and saw an officer approaching him. "What are you doing here? This isn't a public restroom."

"Sorry, officer," Ben said and the officer was put off by his Japanese, no doubt surprised that a teen could, in his mind, speak it so flawlessly. "I got sep…sep," Ben's excuse fell flat when he noticed something floating out of the corner of his eye. It looked like an arm covered in some sort of green cloth. And yet, it looked slightly transparent, like a hologram or something. Slowly his eyes trailed down the arm to figure out who it belonged to. But as he reached the end, he realized that the arm was coming from…his own shoulder. "Aaaaah!" Ben staggered back, tripping over his feet and falling flat on his butt.

"Kid!" The officer was at his side. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"It's…it's…" Ben was about to point out the holographic arm when he saw that it had suddenly disappeared.

"Oi, you!" A sudden, gruff voice startled Ben. When he looked at who had called out to him, he saw it wasn't an officer. Next to a pair of officers was a very tall, very muscular guy wearing a trench coat with a long, stiff collar pierced by a large golden chain, a pair of slim pants with two different colored belts, sock-less shoes, and a cap perched upon his head. The cap had a golden button near the center and a pin that resembled a golden hand on the left side. He was facing Ben out of the corner of his eye so Ben could see the back of his hat. Ben shook his head to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but it looked like the back of his hat seemed to merge with the back of his head. He couldn't tell where the hat ended and the hair began. He was looking at Ben with such a piercing glare with his bright green eyes that Ben instinctively froze up. He didn't know who this guy was, but something was telling Ben that he was someone to watch out for.

"You have one too," The man said and there was a hint of interest in his tone.

"Too?" Ben asked, wondering what he meant. Suddenly something emerged from the man's shoulder. It was a muscular, purple arm with a fingerless glove sporting golden studs on the back. It also looked transparent, just like Ben's had.

"Hey, kid," The officer asked again. "What's the matter? You look pretty shaken up."

Ben stammered. He had no idea what was going on. First he found himself in Japan, and now there were some weird arm things that only he and one other person could see. What was going on here?

Then Ben's eyes landed on something posted on the wall. It was a calendar. Ben couldn't tell what month it was due to it being in Japanese but he wasn't paying attention to that. His eyes were solely fixed on four particular numbers on the calendar: 1989.

1989\. The year 1989.

Ben wasn't just in Japan, he was in Japan's _past_.

Eventually all these sudden events were too much to bear. His legs gave out from under him and it felt like his brain had shut down as the last things he noticed were the incoming floor and the shouts of surprise/concern from the police officers. Ben happily welcomed oblivion.

 **. . .**

Ben slowly stirred. He brushed a hand across his forehead as he tried to remember what had exactly happened. Then it came to him in a flash: getting a smoothie, finding himself in Japan, _and_ discovering that he was all the way back in the year 1989. Out of all his crazy adventures, Ben was pretty sure this was the craziest of them all.

"You're up," a familiar gruff voice said. Ben turned his head and saw the guy with the cap from before standing beside him, the cap slightly obscuring his face. Ben realized two things. One, he and the cap guy were in a jail cell and two, Ben was lying on a bed. With a groan, he sat up.

"How long was I out?" He asked.

"Half an hour," the guy replied. A whimpering sound drew Ben's attention to his left. Huddled against the far side of the cell were three other inmates, trembling and shaking with fear. "Don't mind them. They won't do anything." The man narrowed his eyes, causing the cellmates to press themselves as close to the far wall as possible. Whatever this guy had done certainly made an impression on them.

"The police put me in here?" Ben inquired.

"I brought you in here with me," The man answered. "I wasn't expecting to meet someone else like me."

"Like you?" Ben asked before comprehension dawned on him. "Right. So, you really could see that arm?"

"Could you see mine?"

Ben nodded. "What are they?"

"I don't know," The man said. "But I think they're evil spirits."

Ben raised a brow at that. "Evil spirits?"

The guy noticed his skepticism. "It's the only thing I can think of. We're possessed by evil spirits. That's why I let myself get locked up. And it's why I brought you in here with me. I need to figure out exactly what these are and maybe between the two of us, we can do it a little faster." He narrowed his eyes at Ben. "The way you reacted back there, you didn't know about your spirit until now. So what you were doing in the police station in the first place?"

"I got lost," Ben said, which was technically true. "I thought maybe the police could help me out but I don't think they can. Were you turning yourself in because of that spirit thing?"

"Some assholes picked a fight with me," The guy said plainly. "They had knives, nunchucks, and I think one of them used to be a boxer or something. When they attacked, the spirit fought back. Sent them all to the hospital. Fifteen bones broken. And their balls crushed."

"Whoa," Ben muttered. He wasn't sure if these things were _evil spirits_ but this guy's was dangerous at any rate.

"The police were prepared to let me go, ruling the whole thing out as self-defense, but I can't risk this spirit hurting anyone else."

Ben studied the guy, trying to see if he was being completely honest. He didn't see any reason for the guy to lie about it. Besides, if he was up to no good, Ben was certain he would have done something by now. The fact that he was willing to let himself be put in jail to protect others indicated he was a good person.

"Well, I'll help out in any way I can." And then, once Ben figured out what those spirit things were, he would focus on finding a way back to his own time (somehow) and then track down who or what had sent him here in the first place.

The man said nothing; he simply stared at Ben with a scrutinizing gaze. Ben wondered if that was the guy's natural look. "Kujo Jotaro."

Ben nodded. He remembered how in Japan, people introduced themselves by their family name first. "Tennyson Ben. So, why do you think only we can see these things?"

Jotaro crossed his arms and stared off to the side. "Guess you have to actually be possessed to see them."

Ben scratched his chin. "Do you think there might be others out there?"

"Probably." Jotaro replied.

Ben said nothing, mulling over his own thoughts. Why hadn't he ever heard of these…since he couldn't think of anything else to call them he decided to stick with spirits, before? Did the Plumbers know about them? How many people out there were possessed? Where did these spirits come from? What did they want?

Ben got off the bed to clear his head. "I don't really think these spirits are evil though, Jotaro. You did say those guys attacked you first, right? Maybe it's just overprotective. _Really_ overprotective."

Jotaro sat down on a bed laying in front of Ben's, resting his back against the wall. Though he remained quiet, Ben thought that maybe Jotaro was considering his words. "By the way, do you think these spirit things have full bodies or are they just arms?"

Jotaro opened his mouth to respond.

"Jotaro!"

Ben turned around to see a woman running towards the cell, a pair of police officers following behind her. She looked like she might have been roughly about the same age as Ben's mother Sandra, possibly a little bit older, with blonde hair. Ben had a strong hunch that she was Jotaro's mother. "Jotaro!" She was right in front of the cell now. "Jotaro!"

"Shut up!" Jotaro exploded, causing Ben to jump at his outburst. "You're so fucking annoying!"

Ben gawked at his new…acquaintance. The guy's mother had just come to see him and he shouted at her, cursed at her, and called her annoying?

"Okay!" His mother replied with a bright smile on her face. Ben suddenly felt a strange urge to face-plant. Not that he would ever say something like that to his mom but if for some reason he did, she would not respond kindly to that at all. To put it mildly.

Jotaro's mother turned to face the officers. "Officers, he's actually a sweet child. He would never do something so awful."

Ben wondered if she was talking about the fight Jotaro got in or what he had just said to her. Either way, Jotaro looked the furthest thing away from sweet.

"Excuse me ma'am, but do you know this kid?" One of the officers said, pointing directly at Ben now. "He came into the station and went straight to the bathroom. When one of the officers asked what he was doing, the kid suddenly freaked out, like he saw a ghost or something." Ben resisted the urge to snort. If only the officer knew how true that probably was. "Then all of a sudden he collapsed. We were about to check on him when Kujo got in the way, picked the kid up and brought him into the cell."

"Um…" Jotaro's mother, Ben was guessing she was Mrs. Kujo, looked him over. After a minute she shook her head. "No, I don't recognize him. Is he a friend of yours, Jotaro?"

"This is Ben," Jotaro explained. "Mom, go home. We're possessed by spirits. We have no idea what they might make us do."

One of the officers sighed. "Good grief, that's all he's been going on about. We told him he could leave but he refuses to listen. Forgive me for asking this, but is your son alright in the head?"

"This isn't some hotel!" snapped the other officer, kicking the cell bars. "Get out!"

Suddenly the other three inmates ran to the bars, their arms reaching out. "Please! He's telling the truth!"

"They're possessed by evil spirits! Well, I know that big guy is but if he says the kid's got one, I believe it!"

"Let us change cells! We'll never do anything bad again!"

"Shut up!" The officer slammed his baton against the bars but it didn't dissuade the three from begging to be let out of the cell.

"Hey, Ben, want a drink?" Jotaro offered, pulling a can from seemingly out of nowhere.

"What kind of soda is that?" Ben asked.

"It's beer," Jotaro said plainly.

"Sorry, I'm only sixteen," Ben politely refused.

"And I'm seventeen," Jotaro said as he reached into his pocket for something.

At first Ben thought he was being sarcastic but as Jotaro fumbled around in his pocket before pulling out a fountain pen, Ben stared. "You're seventeen?"

"That's right!" Mrs. Kujo beamed brightly, earning a grunt of annoyance from her son.

Well, Jotaro was definitely the tallest and most buff teenager Ben had ever met. And that included a teenager that was part Tetramand.

Not phased at all by Ben's reaction to his age, Jotaro stabbed the bottom of the can with the pen. Once he removed the pen he pulled the can's ring and quickly lifted the can to his mouth. Ben thought he had heard of something like this before. What was it called again?

"He's drinking beer in his cell," One of the officers muttered. "How did he get a beer in there?"

"The spirit did it," Jotaro said, holding up a book. When he opened it, Ben saw it was like a comic book. "It brings things to me." Music started playing and Ben noticed there was a radio next to Jotaro.

"He's listening to the radio while reading Shonen Jump?!" One of the officers exclaimed. "How did he…?"

"You know," Ben said with slight amusement. "For an evil spirit, it sure is a generous one." Jotaro turned his head, eyeing Ben, who held his hands up. "Just saying."

Jotaro got up from his bed. "Do you still want to release me after seeing all this? How about I show you just how dangerous it would be to let me out." He walked towards the bars, the ghostly arm materializing from his right shoulder. The hand reached out of the cell and plucked one of the officer's revolvers out of its holster. Ben stared as the hand placed the gun in Jotaro's.

"My-my gun?!" The officer cried. "How did he get it?!"

"So you can't see it?" Jotaro asked before facing his mother. "Did you see it, mom?"

Mrs. Kujo stared at her son, though her reaction was far calmer than the prisoners or the policemen. Ben wondered if she might have a spirit too. His thoughts were cut short when Jotaro suddenly pointed the revolver at his own temple. "What are you doing?!"

"How about we try this," Jotaro said, cocking the hammer back.

"Jotaro!" His mother cried. Ben moved to try and stop him but the room boomed with the explosion of gunfire, freezing him to the spot, his heart hammering.

Jotaro, however, was completely unharmed. The ghost arm was back again, the revolver's bullet nestled between its forefinger and its thumb. That spirit had caught a bullet fired at point-blank range. Not block, not deflect, _caught._ The officers, the inmates, and Mrs. Kujo all stared.

"Did…did you really need to do that?" Ben asked, his heart still pounding.

"They wouldn't listen to me," Jotaro said flatly, the ghost arm dropping the bullet, making it clink when it hit the ground.

"So you thought shooting yourself was a good idea?!" Ben yelled.

"Would you rather I shot you instead?" Jotaro asked. "Make your spirit appear?"

"No!" Ben shouted.

With a grunt, Jotaro handed the gun back to the officer, who took with a shaky hand.

Ben sat back down on his bed. This day was getting crazier and crazier.

 **. . .**

Ben grunted as he sat against the wall. "I've got nothing,"

"How come you're so good at speaking Japanese but not reading it?" Jotaro asked, sitting up against the wall.

"I only know how to speak it," Ben answered. He looked around the cell, which was now littered with all sorts of objects that Jotaro had managed to obtain with the help of his spirit. Every time Ben turned his head or even so much as blinked, more stuff appeared. There were several books that Ben found himself unable to read since they were all written in Japanese, a table complete with a lamp, mugs, and a blender, some jackets, some remote-control cars, exercise weights, and even an exercise bike. This supported Ben's theory that the spirits were not evil, but Jotaro wanted to wait until they found out more.

"The spirit could be trying to make me drop my guard by giving me all these things," Jotaro had theorized.

"You sure don't mind them though," Ben said, remembering seeing Jotaro play a little with one of the toy cars.

"If the spirit wishes to get me this stuff, I'll use it," Jotaro retorted. "But that doesn't mean I'll give in to it."

Ben's spirit hadn't shown up since the first time. Jotaro was convinced it was still there, probably just waiting to appear.

Aside from trying to figure out exactly what this so-called spirit was, Ben had also been trying to think of a way out of his temporal predicament, which, in all honesty, had been a higher priority for him. Eventually he narrowed it down to four options. One: Hope Professor Paradox would appear to take him home. Two: Unlock an alien with time powers. Three: Get back to America and leave hidden messages for Kevin and Gwen to find and hope they could find a way to bring him home. Four: Try to locate any Plumbers that might still be around. Sadly, each option had its flaws. For the first idea, Paradox always showed up at significant, but random times. He didn't think it would do much good to wait for him. Second, there was no guarantee that Ben would be able to specifically unlock an alien that could travel through time. Plus, he might damage the Ultimatrix and that was the last thing he needed. As for the third option, a lot of things could happen in the time between here and the present. Finally, he remembered his Grandpa Max saying that the Plumbers had been formally disbanded for years until later back in his original time. It looked to Ben like he was indefinitely stuck here for the time being.

The two heard the sound of footsteps walking towards them. One of the officers from before was peeking around the corner. "Good grief," the officer muttered. "There's even more stuff in there than before. Where did he get it all?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Ben called to him.

"And he's got that violent… _thing_ in there with him. Said the American had one too. If word of all this gets out, I'll be fired!" The officer fretted.

"Don't worry," A tall figure wearing a long trenchcoat and fedora who was standing behind the officer said. "I'll get my grandson and his friend out."

Both Ben and Jotaro sat up at this. "Grandson?" Jotaro repeated.

"Alright, step aside," Jotaro's grandfather said, grabbing the officer by the back of his uniform and hoisting him into the air.

"Hey!" The officer shouted as he was moved to the side. "I told you it was too dangerous to get close to the cell, talk to them from here! It's dangerous! I can't be held responsible for what will happen!"

From behind the large figure, Jotaro's mother stepped into view. "Jotaro, it's your grandpa! He can help you two. Just come out with him!"

Instead of replying to her, Jotaro simply got up from his bed and made his way to the cell bars, his grandfather matching his pace step by step until the two of them stood before each other.

Much like Jotaro, his grandfather was indeed a tall, muscular figure. His hair was short and grey, and he sported a thick but well-trimmed beard. Aside from his trenchoat and fedora, he wore a turtleneck sweater, khaki pants, dress shoes, and brown gloves with dark wristbands. He and Jotaro stared each other down.

"Get out," Jotar's grandfather ordered. "You're both coming with me."

"Go away," Jotaro told him abruptly. "I didn't call for you. So you want to help us? What could _you_ do? I'm sorry you came all the way from New York but you cannot help me, grandpa." He then held out his right hand, revealing that he was holding something. Ben focused on the object. It looked like part of a metal finger. He looked back at Jotaro's grandfather and noticed that his left hand was suddenly missing its pinkie. He spotted wires and pieces of metal showing through the glove.

"What?!" The grandfather exclaimed, taking in the speed of Jotaro's spirit.

"Did you see it?" Jotaro asked him. "Did you notice it? That is the evil spirit." He flicked the metal finger onto the ground before walking away from the bars. "Don't get near me. You'll only shorten what's left of your life."

"Wait, Jotaro," Ben said. "Maybe, if your grandpa can see it, maybe he has a spirit too." He faced Jotaro's grandfather. "Excuse me, Mr…"

"Oh, a fellow American," The elderly man smiled, a sudden shift in mood from what had just transpired. He didn't seem all that fazed at losing his finger either. "At least you seem to have better manners than my grandson. My name is Joseph Joestar. Now, from what I understand, you have one of these _evil spirits_ too, eh?"

"My name is Ben Tennyson. Yeah, it looks like I have one but I don't really know how to make it appear like Jotaro can."

"Is Jotaro forcing you to stay in there?" Joseph asked.

Ben shook his head. "No, but since we both have these spirit things, I wanted to stay behind and help figure out what they are. So, Mr. Joestar, do _you_ have a spirit?"

Jotaro looked over his shoulder at Joseph, curious about his reaction.

Joseph silently looked back and forth between Ben and Jotaro, who waited for his answer. Then he shouted. "Avdol! You're up!"

At first Ben thought that Avdol was the name of Joseph's possible spirit but instead someone else stepped into view. It was another muscular man, with dark skin, a large overcoat with long sleeves, and a scarf. He wore a headband and his hair was tied upwards. A necklace made of several medallions sporting symbols that Ben did not recognize was also present, though he slightly cringed when he realized that instead of wearing it around his neck, the man wore the necklace from ear to ear. The man didn't seem bothered by it but Ben could never imagine himself getting any sort of accessory like that. He also wore two large bracelets on both of his wrists. Joseph introduced him.

"This is Avdol, a friend of mine that I met three years ago in Egypt. Avdol, make my grandson Jotaro get out of his cell."

"What about young Mr. Tennyson?" Avdol asked in a deep voice.

"Eh, he's only in there because Jotaro is. I'm sure once we get my grandson out, Ben here will come along. Right, Ben?"

"Uh," was the best answer Ben could think of, having a bad feeling of what was possibly going to go down.

"Forget it," Jotaro said, sitting back down on his bed. "He looks pretty strong but you're dealing with _me_ here. Besides, do you really believe I'm the kind of person to let an ugly guy like him do whatever he wants with me? Don't count on it. Now I'm even more pissed off and I won't ever come out."

Ben groaned but in the short time he had met Jotaro, he realized that once the guy was set on something, he stuck to it. That and it seemed that he had issues with authority. Ben wondered if he would get along with Kevin.

"Mr. Joestar," Avdol said tensely, never taking his eyes off of Jotaro. "It's going to be a little violent. I think he's going to be screaming in pain and ask us to let him out."

"Hey, hold on!" Ben interjected. "Can't we talk about this first?" He wasn't sure what was going to actually happen but he had a feeling that the situation was getting out of hand. If there was going to be a fight, there was a chance that a lot of people might get hurt, especially if Jotaro's spirit attacked anything even remotely like a threat. Jotaro's mother, the police officer, even those three inmates who were still cowering at the farthest side of the cell could get caught in the crossfire.

"Please step back, Ben," Joseph said cordially to him. "It seems that my grandson is the kind of person who can only be reasoned with through force."

"Dad, what are you…" Mrs. Kujo started to ask.

"Hey," the officer spoke up weakly. "Hey! Don't make any trouble!"

"Shut up!" Joseph barked at him.

The officer flinched. "Yes sir!"

Suddenly a red aura like flames began emitting from Avdol's body. As the aura began building up, something seemed to burst out and appear within the cell; a creature with a red, heavily built, humanoid body but with the head of some sort of bird. Flames were being emitted from the being's wrists and completely engulfed the lower half of its body.

"What the…" Jotaro muttered, staring at the figure before him.

"So he's got…" Ben started to say.

Joseph smirked at their reactions. "That's right. Avdol also possesses what you call an evil spirit. One that he can control at will! Its name is…Magician's Red!"

Magician's Red opened its mouth, unleashing tendrils of fire that shot towards Jotaro, actually picking him up and slamming him against the wall, pinning his hands and feet.

Jotaro winced from the impact and the heat of the flames. "It's hot," he hissed through gritted teeth. "I'm burning! My arms are burning!"

"Kujo's thrown himself against the wall!" The officer cried. "And he won't budge."

"This doesn't make any sense," said his partner, who must have been behind everyone else the whole time. "Also, isn't it getting a bit hot?" He looked over at the thermometer on the wall and gawked when it started rising rapidly. "No way! How can it be this hot?"

Ben took note of what they were saying. Not only was Magician's Red invisible to these guys but so were the flames.

Magican's Red released the tendrils from Jotaro's body, causing him to fall back down onto the bed. It grabbed him by his shoulders and started lifting him up.

"Ora!"

Ben finally saw what Jotaro's entire spirit looked like. If he had to give a brief description of what it looked like, he would have settled for saying it looked like a big, buff, purple Aztec warrior. It had long hair, a cap on its chin, a metallic-looking headband, waving lines that ran down its arms to its torso and then further down to its legs, a short scarf, armored shoulder pads with a spiral design on each, elbow guards, knee guards, a loincloth, and short boots.

"Oh!" Joseph looked impressed. "It's finally appeared! And since it appeared so clearly, that means it's a strong one!"

Ben had to admit, Jotaro's spirit did look pretty cool. And intimidating; no wonder Jotaro might have thought it was an evil spirit. It knocked Magician's Red's hands off of Jotaro before grabbing the other spirit by the neck. Suddenly Avdol cringed, tilting his head back as if he was the one being choked. In fact, Ben could see that it did look like there was something grabbing Avdol's throat. Attacking the spirit affected the one it was possessing?

"I cannot believe he can materialize it so vividly," Avdol wheezed, though he remained standing.

"I wasn't expecting you to have an evil spirit too," Jotaro said to him before looking at Joseph. "And you, gramps, the identity of the evil spirit…"

"I know of it," Joseph said as he crossed his arms, completely nonchalant to the fight happening in front of him.

"Mr. Joestar," Avdol said. "You said you just wanted me to get your grandson out of his cell. I was planning on holding back but we are in danger because of how strong it is. Should I stop? If this continues, I may have to use enough force that will put him in the hospital."

"So be it," Joseph told him. "Give it a shot."

"Yes sir!" Avdol replied. "Red Bind!" Magician's Red shot another tendril of fire at Jotaro. This one wrapped up his body before pulling him forward, slamming him against the bars.

"Jotaro!" Ben shouted. He knew that Jotaro was being incredibly stubborn but he couldn't sit by and allow him to get burnt. Ben wished there was somewhere he could duck away to in order to change, but there was no other option. He wasn't sure what would happen if people in the past saw his aliens but that was a chance he would have to take. He reached for the Ultimatrix. "It's Hero Time!"

Suddenly something shot out of his body. It was the arm of his so-called spirit! It was back. But something else was happening. The arm was moving upward and it was soon followed by a shoulder, side of a torso, before an entire figure appeared. Ben's spirit had fully revealed itself. It was muscular, though slightly less than Jotaro's spirit, and it was donned in an emerald green armor that slightly resembled the Plumber uniform. Its face was obscured with a visor helmet sporting antennae-like features on the sides that reminded Ben a little of his fantasies as Ultra Ben.

"Oh ho!" Joseph chuckled. "Both of them have appeared now."

"And this one also looks strong," Avdol commented. "So, do you plan on fighting me too?"

"Only if you still plan on forcing Jotaro out," Ben told him.

"There's so much heat!" One officer said.

"I don't know what's going on," The other admitted in confusion. Ben decided to ignore them.

"Papa, what are you doing to Jotaro?" Mrs. Kujo asked her father.

Joseph just smiled at his daughter. "Holly, be a good girl and keep quiet, okay?"

The rope of flames tightened around Jotaro, cutting off his breathing.

"The spirit's disappearing?" Ben noticed that indeed, the spirit beside Jotaro was starting to slowly fade away.

"That's right," Joseph said. "When your breathing is restricted, your _evil spirit_ will weaken."

"They disappear if you can't breathe?" Ben wondered. He filed that away for later.

"Listen to me, boys," Joseph said firmly. "Despite their appearances, they are _not_ evil spirits."

Ben smiled, satisfied that his hunch had been right after all. "Well if they're not evil spirits, what are they?"

"What they are, are powerful visions formed from your own life energy! And because they _stand_ beside you, we have a special name for these visions," Joseph replied. "They're Stands!"

"Stands?" Ben looked at his spiri…Stand. The Stand looked back at him but as before, said nothing. At least now he knew what they were. "Not my first choice for a name."

Joseph threw back his head and laughed. "I'm starting to like this kid. Avdol, let me get Ben out of this cell first. Then you can get my grandson out."

Avdol grinned. "Understood, Mr. Joestar. Magician's Red will hold Jotaro in place." He looked back at Jotaro. "Just like in Aesop's fable, the traveler only needed a coat against the icy wind, but the heat from the sun was too much. Want to leave your cell now, JoJo?"

Ben blinked. "JoJo?"

"Oh, Jotaro's friends take the Jo from his first and last name and combine them to make JoJo!" Holly explained, briefly forgetting about the standoff happening in front of her.

Ben looked over at Jotaro, who was still glaring at Avdol. JoJo did not seem like a fitting nickname unless they wanted to get on Jotaro's bad side.

"Screw you," Jotaro told Avdol. "I won't get out so I don't hurt anybody by mistake."

"What about Ben?" Joseph shot back. "You haven't hurt him, have you?"

"I don't know why my spirit, no, my Stand, hasn't attacked him but for all I know it's a one-time thing. I might have just been lucky with him and I didn't want to press it." He looked back at Avdol. "I respect you since you have the same kind of power that Ben and I have, but if this continues, you will die."

Ben decided it was absolutely time for him to step him. He prepared to activate the Ultimatrix again when his Stand raised his arm. Ben found it odd, it was posing just like he did whenever he…then something popped up from the Stand's left wrist, a hologram appearing. Ben stared. His Stand had an Ultimatrix too?!

His Stand slammed its right hand down and in a green flash it had changed. The Stand now looked like a tall humanoid composed of magma with large hands, two-toed feet, and a flaming head.

"Heatblast?!" Ben exclaimed.

Jotaro, Avdol, Joseph, and Holly all stared at the flaming alien. "His Stand can transform?!"

The Stand, Ben decided to just call him Heatblast, raised his hands at Jotaro. The fire rope flew off of Jotaro and into Heatblast's arms. Jotaro threw out his hands to catch himself as he began falling.

"It absorbed the flames of Magician's Red!" Avdol cried out in shock.

Jotaro rubbed his neck as he stood up. "Thanks." He said with a nod to Ben.

"No problem," Ben said, still amazed at his Stand using his aliens.

Jotaro looked back over at Avdol. "Too bad for you." He said confidently. Avdol narrowed his eyes and a small bit of sweat dripped down his forehead.

"I was not expecting your Stand to have such abilities," He said to Ben. "It seems I may have to use even more force!"

"We'll see about that," Ben retorted. In response, Heatblast raised his arms and fired two jets of fire at Magician's Red. The other Stand responded by raising its hands. The flames danced around Magician's Red and shot directly at Jotaro. In response, Jotaro shot his foot back and kicked the toilet at the back of the cell. The force separated the toilet from the pipes in the wall, releasing a stream of water at the incoming flames, quickly dosing them. Ben was impressed by Jotaro's quick thinking.

"It seems Magician's Red and this Heatblast as you called it, are evenly matched in terms of their powers. But Jotaro is still vulnerable to the flames," Avdol said. "Perhaps I will focus my fire on him while engaging Heatblast physically."

"You're really gonna take us both on?" Jotaro asked. As such, his Stand grabbed two of the cell bars and began bending them, creating a large opening.

"The bars are bending on their own," One of the officers muttered, staring dumbfounded at the sight.

With a tug, the Stand snapped the bars, wielding them like spears. Pulling his right arm back, the Stand shot forward, prepared to run Magician's Red though. Ben reached for the Ultimatrix again when Avdol suddenly turned around, Magician's Red disappearing as he did. Jotaro's Stand stopped its assault, Jotaro and Ben both staring at Avdol's actions.

"Why are you walking away from me?" Jotaro demanded testily. Avdol ignored him, walking over to the other wall and sitting down against it.

"Mr. Joestar," Avdol said confidently. "As you can see, I got him out of his cell."

"Huh?" Ben looked at Jotaro's feet and saw that he was in fact standing outside of the cell. He had gone through the opening his Stand had made without realizing it. Jotaro stared at his feet upon realizing the same thing.

He put his hands into his pockets as his Stand disappeared. Ben looked at his own Stand. With the danger seemingly over, it disappeared as well.

"So you let us win?" Jotaro asked Avdol.

"No, I had planned on sending you, and Ben if necessary, to the hospital," Avdol confessed. "I wasn't expecting your Stands to have so much power."

"What would you have done if I _had_ launched that steel bar at you?" Jotaro questioned.

"My Stand is Magican's Red," Avdol answered. "Melting a bar like that in midair would have been simple."

Ben believed it, especially since this guy obviously had experience with his Stand compared to Jotaro and him. Who knew what this guy was _really_ capable of?

"Since Avdol has the same ability as you two, you don't have to stay in that cell to do research on your _evil spirits_ anymore," Joseph said.

Ben relaxed, glad that the tense situation was over with. With a sigh, Jotaro adjusted the brim of his hat. "Good grief."

. . .

Ben found himself sitting with Jotaro, his mother Holly, Joseph, and Avdol inside a café. Out of the entire group, Holly was the only one in a cheerful mood.

"Oh, thank goodness!" She beamed, hugging her son's arm. "Jotaro finally left his cell!"

Jotaro scowled. "You're such a pain, woman."

"Okay!" His mother replied.

"Hey, you punk!" Joseph snapped at his grandson. "Don't talk to your mother that way! And Holly! Don't smile after he insults you like that!"

"Okay!" Holly said to him.

Ben put his hands in the pockets of his jacket, still getting used to this family's dynamic. "So, Mr. Joestar. I was hoping you could tell me more about these Stands."

"Of course," Joseph said amicably. "What do you want to know first?"

"Well…" Ben started to say until Jotaro held a finger up.

"Hold on, Ben, I have a question for Gramps first."

"Oh, uh, sure Jotaro. What's up?"

"How exactly do you know about these Stands in the first place?" Jotaro asked his grandfather. "That's what I don't understand."

Ben blinked when he realized he hadn't thought of that.

"Ah," Joseph's face became serious. "That. That's actually why I came all the way from New York in the first place. But to properly explain everything, I would have to start at the beginning." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few pictures. "See these?" He tossed them onto the table one at a time. The first was the picture of some ship. The next one appeared to be a long, open coffin. The last picture had an inscription, probably from the coffin, in gold letters: D I O.

"Dio?" Ben read aloud.

Joseph nodded. "That is a hundred year old coffin pulled from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa four years ago."

Jotaro picked up the pictures and began looking through them. "A coffin?"

"I did some research after it came into my possession," Joseph went on. "I found out that four generations ago before you; my grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, died on the ship where this coffin was hidden."

Holly gasped. Jotaro looked at his grandfather sharply.

"I don't think I'm gonna like where this is going," Ben said, the hair on the back of his neck starting to stand on end.

"Apparently it was empty by the time they discovered it," Joseph went on. "But I know exactly what was inside!"

"And what _was_ inside?" Ben asked him.

"Abdul and I are trying to track him down," Joseph explained.

"'Him'? Hold on!" Jotaro said. "You sound like you're talking about a living person. How could something lost at sea for a hundred years still be alive?"

"You'd be surprised," Ben muttered under his breath.

Joseph slammed his hand down on the table. "Because he is evil incarnate!"

"Who?" Ben asked. Then it came to him. "Dio?"

"That's right!" Joseph shouted. "Dio! He's awakened from his hundred year sleep! It is our fate to do battle with him!"

Ben rubbed his forehead. Now he was dealing with a hundred year old guy with some kind of grudge against the Joestar family? Just what he gotten himself into?

Jotaro on the other hand just scoffed and looked away.

"What the hell was that, Jotaro?" Joseph demanded. "Don't give me the kind of face that says "this has nothing to do with me"!"

Jotaro looked back at Joseph. "This face means "That's stupid, I don't know what to say" old geezer."

"Old geezer?!" Joseph fumed, clenching a fist.

Ben would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. "Excuse me, Mr. Joestar. But who exactly _is_ this Dio guy anyway?"

His attention diverted away from Jotaro for the moment, Joseph coughed into his hand. "Well, Ben. Long ago, the Joestar family welcomed a boy by the name of Dio Brando into their home. But like I said, Dio was evil incarnate. From what Granny Erina told me, he originally wanted the entire Joestar fortune all to himself, so he planned on killing my great grandfather, George Joestar, and tormented my grandfather Jonathan."

"What?!" Ben exclaimed.

"When Grandpa Jonathan found out that Dio was secretly poisoning Great Grandpa George, he tried to have him arrested. But with his back to the wall and no way out, Dio decided to use a special artifact the Joestar family possessed: The Stone Mask. With it, Dio turned himself into a vampire!"

"Wait! There's a mask that can turn people into vampires?"

"The process is a little long to explain but essentially yes," Joseph clarified.

Ben really hoped none of his enemies, especially collectors of artifacts, like the Forever Knights, got their hands on that Stone Mask.

"With his newfound power, Dio wasn't interested in taking the Joestar fortune anymore. Instead, he wanted to take over the entire world. Luckily my grandfather, along with his friends William Zeppeli and Robert Speedwagon, confronted and defeated Dio. But as Dio was dying, he separated his head from his body to ensure his survival."

"He could survive just being a head?" Ben asked.

"He was essentially immortal aside from a few methods," Joseph explained. "Anyway, the ship that Grandfather Jonathan was on was the boat he and Granny Erina were using for their honeymoon. With the help of one of his minions, Dio managed to sneak aboard and attack my grandfather. Caught off guard by this attack, Jonathan was too weak to defeat Dio, but he used the last of his strength to make sure Granny Erina got to escape safely."

Ben's sympathy for the Joestar family grew. Ben felt Jonathan deserved better than that after all he had been through. He looked over at Jotaro, who, while a little more intrigued by the story, still seemed doubtful.

"Oh, you still doubt me, Jotaro?" Joseph asked his grandson.

"I believe it, Jotaro," Ben reassured him. "Trust me I've actually had my share of strange things happening in my life."

"What do you mean by that?" Jotaro asked him sharply.

"I'll explain later," Ben said. After everything that had been happening so far, he believed it was fair to tell Jotaro and his family about the Ultimatrix and how he was from the future. Besides, he didn't have any other plan right now so he could use all the help he could get. That and he wanted to know more about this Dio guy.

"Well, Jotaro," Joseph said. "How about I give you some proof?" He held out his hand and Avdol pulled out a flash camera from his sleeve, placing it in the palm of Joseph's hand. What was he going to do with that? Ben, Jotaro, and Holly watched as Joseph placed it on the table. "Ben, you asked me if I too had an evil spirit, a Stand. As a matter of fact, I developed mine about a year ago."

Avdol simply smirked while Ben, Jotaro, and Holly watched Joseph intently. So he was about to display his own Stand. But what did it have to do with a camera?

"Grandpa, what did you just say?" Jotaro asked.

"Watch," Joseph said as he raised his right hand above the camera. "This is my special power!" He brought his hand down in a chopping motion, smashing the camera. Despite its damaged state, it managed to produce a picture. "Did you see them?"

"I did," Ben said. "It was short but it looked like there were purple vines coming out of your hand."

"That's right!" Joseph boasted as he picked up the photo from the camera. "That is my Stand! It allows me to create ideographs; spirit photos containing visions from even distant places. Although, I do have to smash a thirty thousand yen camera every time I use it!"

"Spirit photographs," Ben mused as he looked at the destroyed camera. He looked over at Avdol. "Does he really need to smash a camera every time he uses his Stand?"

"Probably not," Avdol admitted with a chuckle. "But in the time I've known Mr. Joestar, he has proven to be a very…eccentric person."

"I wonder how many more photographs he could make if he tried not smashing the camera," Ben wondered aloud. The idea made Avdol grin and Joseph to flush.

Just then a waiter, drawn to the commotion of their table, appeared. "Good sir," The man said politely. "Is something wrong?"

"It's fine," Avdol reassured him. "Please leave."

"O-of course," The waiter said, somewhat doubtful at Avdol's words. As he left, Joseph focused on his grandson.

"Jotaro," he said. "The vision this photo is about to reveal, is the one that will seal your fate!"

"What did you just say?" Jotaro said, eyeing the photo.

"Holly, Jotaro," Joseph went on. "Have you ever looked at the back of your shoulder?"

"What do you mean?" Jotaro questioned.

"You probably haven't had the opportunity to do so," Joseph reached behind his neck and pulled his coat and sweater back, revealing a small mark that looked like a red star. "I have a star-shaped birthmark on the back of my left shoulder."

Holly leaned her neck forward and pulled her shirt back. She gasped when she found a similar star on her left shoulder. Jotaro immediately checked his own shoulder and froze when he also saw a star there. Though this revelation made him even more on edge as he rounded on Joseph.

"Just what are you getting at?" He asked.

"I had also asked my mother and she told me that my father also had one," Joseph explained. "It seems that people of the Joestar bloodline all have star-shaped birthmarks."

Ben felt a great sense of foreboding in Joseph's words. A strange tension was starting to fill the air and it was making him on edge now.

"What the hell is on that photo?" Jotaro demanded.

"The mark that we've never paid attention to is our undisclosed destiny," Joseph said, though his cryptic answer only aggravated Jotaro.

"Just tell what's the hell's on it already!" Jotaro snatched the photo from Joseph. Ben got up out of his seat to take a look.

In the photograph was a man with wild, blonde hair, his back to the camera. Similar to Jotaro and Joseph, he was heavily built, shirtless but sporting brown pants with a long green belt. Just like with Jotaro's family, this man had a star mark on the back of his left shoulder. Only the side of the man's face was visible but his eye was what creeped Ben out the most. It was a piercing red eye that seemed to be looking straight at them, almost as if the man knew that his picture had been taken.

"So is that…" Ben started to ask.

"Dio!" Joseph confirmed. "He's appeared in all my photographs!"

"But I thought you said he was just a head," Ben pointed out. "How did he get his body back?"

"He didn't," Joseph said coldly. "Look at the back of his neck."

Ben took a closer look. He realized that there was some sort of jagged line around the man's neck, like it had been cut. "Wait. You mean…"

"That's right!" Joseph shouted, his body trembling in anger. "Everything below that asshole's neck is the body he stole from my grandfather, Jonathan Joestar!"

Jotaro, Holly, and Ben stared.

"That's how Dio was able to survive despite my grandfather's attempt to end him!" Joseph went on. "And now that son of a bitch is hiding somewhere in the world, plotting something. It's been four years since he's returned. My spirit photos and your evil spirit appearing this past year is related to Dio, I'm certain of it!"

Avdol stood up now. "In the wider world, our abilities would be seen as physic powers. I had mine since birth. But it seems that Jotaro and Mr. Joestar's Stands are linked to Dio's body. All we can say for certain is that it's thanks to Dio's existence that you have awakened your dormant powers."

Joseph handed the photo to his friend. "Avdol, can you find out anything from where Dio is?"

Avdol took a quick glance at the photograph but shook his head. "The background is too indistinct. I don't know where he is."

Ben really wished Gwen was here. She might have had a spell or something for tracking this Dio guy down.

"As I thought," Joseph sighed as he picked up his hat.

"I'll give it a closer look later," Avdol reassured him as he put the photo in his sleeve.

Joseph looked over at his daughter now. "Holly, we're gonna stay in Japan for a little while. Let's stay at your place."

Holly, looking quite rattled after everything she had just learned, managed to give a light smile. "Okay, papa."

Jotaro and Ben got up as Avdol, Joseph, and Holly headed towards the door. Jotaro watched them leave for a moment before following after them. With nowhere else to go, Ben quickly joined them. As he did, he went over everything that had occurred to him today: traveling back in time, gaining a power apart from the Ultimatrix, learning about a hundred year old, body-snatching vampire and his grudge against the family of the one who had defeated him. Ben had plenty of experience under his belt but he felt that this unplanned adventure was rather _bizarre_.

"Oh!" Joseph came to a halt. "That reminds me!" He turned around. "Ben! We've been so busy talking about history that we completely ignored you. Tell us more about yourself. When did you realize you had a Stand?"

"Uh, when I first got to the police station, actually," Ben said truthfully. "I had no idea what that thing was and I freaked out. At first all I could see was my Stand's arm. Then Jotaro called to me and showed me he had one too."

Joseph scratched his chin. "Your Stand just suddenly appeared to you like that?"

"That's right," Ben answered. Holly listened out of curiosity, Jotaro ignored him since he already knew this part, but Avdol was listening with rapt attention.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Holly suddenly asked him, throwing Ben off guard.

"Um…not yet," He admitted.

"Really?" Holly seemed surprised by this.

"The police kept asking Ben if he had friends or family they could contact but I kept them off," Jotaro said.

"You're in Japan by yourself?" Joseph asked. When Ben nodded, Holly's smile widened.

"You can stay with us!" She offered happily.

"R-really?" Ben held his hands up. "I don't want to impose."

"Nonsense!" Joseph said kindly. "We wouldn't think of leaving you out on the streets by yourself! Besides, we can help you learn more about your Stand."

"Thank you," Ben said appreciatively.

"Do you have any luggage?" Holly inquired.

"Ben only had the clothes on his back when he went into the station," Jotaro answered for him.

Joseph raised a brow. "Is that right?"

Ben knew he was in a corner. It was now or never. "I can explain everything. But first, I would like to do it where we're not in public."

Holly was confused by Ben's request but Jotaro, Joseph, and Avdol were on guard.

"What shall we do, Mr. Joestar?" Avdol asked his friend.

"We'll go to Holly's house," Joseph said, keeping his eyes on Ben. "Then we'll hear Ben out."

Ben nodded. "Thank you."

. . .

The trip to the Kujo house was tense, everyone now wary around Ben, which he didn't blame them for. Once they arrived, the young hero took in the sights. Although architecture never really peaked his interest, he had to admit, the scenery was pretty cool. It looked like the Kujo family owned a small village. Ben was a little envious.

"Now, Ben," Joseph said evenly as they stood in front of the Kujo household. He, Jotaro, and Avdol all faced Ben while Holly stood behind them, uncertain and uneasy about what might happen.

Ben took a deep breath to calm himself before looking Joseph square in the eye. "I have something to tell you and I know it's going to be hard to believe, even with all the stuff that you have been through."

Joseph smirked at that. "You don't know half the things I've been through. But go ahead. Try me."

"I told Jotaro that I ran into the police station was because I was lost and hoped they could help me. What Jotaro didn't tell you is that I also fainted. I never told him why, course he didn't ask me either. This might sound crazy but I fainted when I saw a calendar and saw it was 1989. I'm from the future."

Holly gasped, while Joseph, Jotaro, and Avdol all narrowed their eyes.

"From the future?" Jotaro said disdainfully. "You expect us to believe that?"

"I will admit that I find this quite hard to believe," Avdol said. "However, I cannot say the notion is impossible."

"How exactly did you get here?" Joseph asked Ben, though he gave no hint as to whether or not he believed Ben.

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Ben admitted. "All I can say for certain is that something touched me and I found myself here. But, after what's happened today, I have a theory."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Joseph asked.

"I couldn't see whatever did it but I could feel something touch me, like a hand. It could have been someone invisible but…now I'm starting to wonder…if I was sent back in time by someone's Stand."

Avdol tensed. "A Stand with power over time…"

"Could such a thing exist?" Jotaro asked him.

"Stands all have unique powers, so one actually possessing that kind of power is possible," Joseph admitted. "But that's scary to think about."

"Like I said, it's just a theory," Ben said. "But since Stands can only be seen by other people with who have them that might explain why I didn't see it."

"But you have a Stand," Jotaro pointed out. "If it was the work of a Stand, you should have been able to."

"Not necessarily," Avdol interjected. "Just because you have the potential to use a Stand will not allow you to see them. Your Stand must manifest first before that is possible. Now I wonder, if this _is_ the work of a Stand, did it somehow cause yours to manifest?"

"A Stand that can not only send people back in time but cause them to develop their own Stands?" A skeptical Jotaro crossed his arms.

"We have to take that into consideration," Joseph asked.

Jotaro stared at his grandfather. "You believe him?"

"If Ben wanted to lie, he would have used something more convincing than getting sent back in time," Joseph told him. "But, I'm sorry to hear that, Ben. I wish there was something we could do to help but this is beyond me."

"I understand, Mr. Joestar," Ben said. "But thank you for believing me. And, I know it's not any of my business, but I would like to help you stop Dio."

This took Joseph by surprise. "Oh, really?"

"Yes. This Dio guy is a monster and he needs to be stopped. Besides, in my time, I'm a hero. There's no way I could let a guy like him just do whatever he wants."

"A hero you say?" Avdol asked.

Ben grinned. "Let's just say my Stand isn't the only one who can transform!" He pulled back his sleeve to reveal the Ultimatrix in all its glory. The other four stared at it.

"I wondered what that thing was," Jotaro said. "I knew it wasn't a watch but I couldn't tell what it was."

"It's called the Ultimatrix. As for what it can do," Ben popped up the interface, the others taking a step back as a hologram popped up. He slammed the dial down. Everyone closed their eyes at the blinding flash of green light. Once it faded, they found themselves staring at a tall, red, muscular creature with four arms and four eyes. "Four Arms!"

"OH! MY! GOOOOOOOOOOOD!" Joseph screamed, gaping in open-mouthed shock at Ben's transformation.

Jotaro took a step back. "What the hell is this?!" Suddenly his Stand appeared beside him, its fists raised at Four Arms.

"This would explain what his Stand did earlier!" Avdol said, though he did not call forth Magician's Red. "So, Heatblast was not the name of your Stand but instead a transformation like this one!"

"That's right," Four Arms grinned, flexing his muscles. "The Ultimatrix is a special device that lets me turn into different aliens!"

"A-Aliens now?!" Joseph brought a hand to his forehead. "Well, this is a first for me."

Four Arms laughed as he touched the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, turning back into his regular human self as Ben.

"It seems that Mr. Joestar wasn't the only one with a story to tell," Avdol commented. "It would be best if you enlightened us, Ben."

"That's pretty fair to me," Ben said.

And so, Ben told Avdol and Jotaro's family about the fateful summer when he was ten years old and found the device known as the Omnitrix. He told them about his adventures over the summer, how he temporarily gave up the Omnitrix after a few years, only to put it back on to save the entire universe, sacrificed the Omnitrix to defeat his nemesis, the intergalactic warlord Vilgax, and took the Ultimatrix from an alien called Albedo who, thanks to his own copy of the Omntirix, was stuck in a clone body of Ben's.

His audience listened with rapt attention.

"Incredible," Avdol said in awe.

"You've had quite the exciting life," Joseph told him. "You not only saved the world but the entire universe?"

"I don't brag about it as much as I used to, but yeah." Ben said.

"Mr. Joestar," Avdol said, a large smile on his face. "I think it's obvious that Ben's help would be more than welcome. A hero who has saved the entire universe, combined with his own abilities alongside those of his Stand? He would make a valuable ally against Dio."

"I agree, Avdol," Joseph walked over to Ben and held his hand out. "Thank you, Ben."

Ben shook it firmly. "Happy to help, Mr. Joestar."

"I don't know how we'll do it but I promise that we'll do whatever we can to help you find a way back to your time," Joseph reassured him. "If there exists a Stand that sends people back in time, there should be one that can send people forward in time too."

"Thank you, Mr. Joestar."

"Welcome to our home, Ben," Holly said sweetly. "You are more than welcome to stay with us. It's the least we can do."

. . .

The next morning, Ben woke up early. At first he thought that yesterday's events had been a weird dream but nope, he found himself waking up in the same room Holly had picked out for him. Putting on his pants and jacket, Ben left the room. As he walked down the hallway, he stumbled upon Holly, sweeping the floors, an apron tied around her waist.

"Oh! Good morning, Ben." She greeted him.

"Good morning, Mrs. Kujo," Ben greeted her back warmly.

"Please, Ben, call me Seiko!" She said cheerfully.

"Seiko?"

"Holly comes from the word Holy, which is Seinaru in Japanese," Holly informed him. "So my friends call me Seiko."

"Uh, okay, uh, Seiko." Holly's face brightened even more.

"Did you sleep well?" She asked him.

"Very much, thank you."

"Papa complained so much about sleeping on his futon last night," Holly said with a huff.

"It's a lot like a sleeping bag really," Ben said. "Is everyone else up?"

Holly tapped her chin. "Well, Papa and Mr. Avdol were in the tea room last time I saw them and Jotaro is at school right now. He'll be back home later."

"Okay," Ben said. "Is it okay if I walk around a bit? Your place is amazing!"

"Of course you can, Ben! You're our guest here!"

"Thank you," Ben said appreciatively as he walked outside, taking in the sights. The other day, he had learned that Joseph worked in real estate and that Jotaro's dad was a popular musician currently on tour. No wonder their family looked like they were loaded, they were!

Just then one of the doors of the house opened up. Joseph popped his head out. "Oh, Ben!" He waved to the young hero. "Over here!"

Ben made his way over, seeing Joseph and Avdol kneeling in a room. Joseph had a cup in his hands and looking a little disgruntled. Avdol seemed to be grinding something in another cup. Ben figured this was the tea room.

"Hello, Ben," Avdol welcomed the hero. "Sleep well?"

"Very much," Ben said as he entered the room. "I'm honestly surprised that I got any sleep at all, with everything that happened yesterday."

"That's for sure," Joseph said. "An actual time-traveler. So, Ben. What's the future like?"

"Eh, not all that impressive really," Ben said. "Pretty much the same, except for some new technology. Aliens get all the good stuff."

"I'm still astonished to know that aliens actually exist," Avdol spoke up.

"I'm amazed that Ben can turn into more than one," Joseph said. He eyed the Ultimatrix. "How many can you turn into again?"

"Well, I've only unlocked some of them but I was told that the Ultimatrix has access to over a million samples of alien DNA."

Joseph dropped his cup, spilling coffee over the floor. Avdol froze, turning his head to look at Ben more clearly.

"A…a million?" He repeated.

"They come in groups of ten to make it easier to manage," Ben explained. He activated the interface. "Now let's see. How many do I have again?" He was greeted by the holographic image of Four Arms. "There's Four Arms. Heatblast. Diamondhead. Ripjaws. XLR8? Huh, I don't remember unlocking him. Upgrade? Wildmutt? Stinkfly? Grey Matter? Ghostfreak?!" When he turned the dial again, it brought up Four Arms again. "Huh?" He scrolled around but only kept getting the same ten aliens. "I got my original ten guys back but I can't get any of my other ones. I had a lot more than this. Wait. The recalibration mode! It gave me my original guys again?"

"So these were the first aliens you ever became?" Joseph said, studying each image. "And your Ultimatrix can recalibrate? I wonder why it did that."

At first Ben couldn't make sense of what had happened but the more he thought about it, the sooner it came to him. "Primus."

Joseph tilted his head. "Primus?"

"The DNA isn't inside the Ultimatrix. It's contained on an artificial planet called Primus, collected in this thing called the Codon Stream. The Ultimatrix is like a wireless receiver for the DNA. I'm guessing that since the guys I unlocked in the future are still locked in the past, the Ultimatrix had to recalibrate and give me my old guys again."

"An entire planet holding the DNA of a million aliens," Joseph held his head.

"So, if the DNA itself is on Primus," Avdol rationalized. "And you were taken into a time period where Primus had not been created yet…"

"The Ultimatrix would be useless," Ben finished as he deactivated the interface. "And I'd probably be in a lot of trouble."

"Not entirely," Joseph said, shaking his head to collect himself. "You still have your Stand now."

"That's true," Ben admitted. "But it seems his powers are the same as mine. I don't know how he has an Ultimatrix or if he has any special powers aside from that."

Joseph stroked his beard as he contemplated Ben's words. But then the door was suddenly flung open, revealing none other than Jotaro. He looked somewhat disheveled, his left cheek had been cut, and he was carrying someone over his shoulder. All Ben could make out about this person was that they were male, compared to Jotaro, he was slender but still decently muscular; wearing a green uniform, had red hair with a long, wavy bang, and wore reddish earrings that resembled cherries. Joseph, Avdol, and Ben immediately got to their feet.

"Jotaro! What is this?!" Joseph demanded as Jotaro entered.

"His name is Kakyoin Noriaki," Jotaro explained. Everyone backed away as he gently set Kakyoin on the floor. "He's a Stand User sent by Dio."

"What? Dio knows you guys are onto him?" Ben asked.

"I'm not surprised," Avdol said coldly while Joseph inspected Kakyoin. "He's been active for four years. He has probably built himself quite the following."

"This is bad though," Ben said. "He knows where you live. He might send others if he finds out this Kakyoin guy failed. That's what most villains do anyway."

"Then we shall have to be on guard," Avdol remarked. "Though it seems Jotaro handled himself pretty well for just his second fight with a Stand User. Dio will have to try harder if he wishes to take down the Joestar bloodline."

"Did you bring him here to get some information out of him, Jotaro?" Ben asked the other teen, who nodded as he placed his hands into his pockets.

"He probably won't tell us anything," Joseph said grimly, sitting on his knees. "This poor boy will be dead within a few days."

Ben turned to Joseph. "What?!" Jotaro's body slightly stiffened at this news.

"Jotaro," Joseph said immediately. "It is not your fault. The reason why this man swore loyalty to Dio and tried to kill you…is this!" He swept the front of Kakyoin's hair back, revealing a strange, bulbous growth sticking out of the teen's forehead.

Ben made a face at it. "What is that?"

"It's some kind of flesh bud," Jotaro observed. "Looks like a spider."

"It _is_ a flesh bud," Avdol told them. "Made of Dio's own cells. It goes all the way to the poor boy's brain, controlling his thoughts."

"In other words," Joseph spoke up. "That flesh bud exhibits Dio's special talent: Charisma! It's a gift that allowed Hitler to be followed by his soldiers! A gift that allows cult leaders to be loved by their followers! That boy swore loyalty to Dio because he admires him! Through this flesh bud, Dio is using his charisma, his strong and attractive personality, to control this poor boy, ordering him to kill us."

Ben looked at Kakyoin, immediately feeling bad for him. Ben had met plenty of charismatic enemies but few of them stooped as low as to what Dio was doing. "Is there any way to remove the bud?"

"I'm afraid not," Joseph said sadly. "The brain is a fragile organ. If the flesh bud moved during an operation, it could damage it."

Ben clenched his jaw. He felt there had to be something they could do. Could any of his current aliens somehow remove the flesh bud without hurting Kakyoin?

"Boys," Avdol spoke up. "I want to tell you something that happened four months ago: When I was in Cairo, Egypt…I met Dio." Jotaro and Ben both stared at Avdol as he continued his story. "I am a fortune teller by trade; my shop was in a bazaar named Khan el-Khalili. It was a full moon that night. He was standing there quietly, watching me from the stairs leading up to the first floor to my shop. He eyed me with an icy gaze that that felt like he was piercing right through me; golden hair, translucent, alabaster skin, and a presence so overwhelming that it could not belong to that of a normal man. I had already known Mr. Joestar by then so I immediately knew who it was. It could only be Dio! And when he spoke to me, I realized how truly terrifying he was! His words brought such wonderful peace to my very soul, they were filled with so much sweetness in them. And that's what made him so terrifying!" Avdol took a breath to steady himself. "I ran for my life. I didn't even think about fighting him. I was remarkably fortunate. Because I knew it was Dio, I was able to escape, jumping out the closest window. I knew the bazaar like the back of my hand, and so I was able to get away." Avdol was lightly sweating, still disturbed by his encounter with Dio four months ago. "I might have ended up like this poor boy," He addressed Kakyoin. "Forced to be one of his followers through a flesh bud."

"And then after a few years you would have died," Joseph concluded. "Your brain completely devoured."

Ben sat down as he took all this in, his body shivering from Avdol's account. How was Dio able to affect him like this even though they had never met? How could just hearing about him make Ben so nervous? Was Dio's presence _that_ impressive?

"'Died'?" Jotaro suddenly said, walking over to Kakyoin. "Wait just a minute. Kakyoin isn't dead yet!" His Stand appeared next to him. Before Ben could ask what he was doing, Jotaro knelt next to Kakyoin, holding his hands on either side of the other boy's face while his Stand started reaching for the flesh bud. "I'll remove the flesh bud with my Stand."

Avdol and Joseph shot to their feet. "Wait, Jotaro!" Joseph shouted.

"I can remove it without causing any damage," Jotaro assured him. "My Stand is precise enough to catch a moving bullet."

"Stop!" Joseph pleaded. "The flesh bud is alive! There's a reason why part of the bud is on the outside! It's why not even the best surgeons can remove them!"

The moment the Stand came in contact with the flesh bud, one of the tentacles shot out of Kakyoin's head and struck itself into Jotaro's hand.

"Shit!" Joseph cursed.

"The flesh bud grabbed him with his tentacle!" Avdol cried. "This is bad! Let it go, JoJo!"

Immediately, Ben activated the Ultimatrix, turned the dial, and slammed the interface down. In a flash of green light, he transformed into a small creature that resembled a small, grey, bipedal frog. "Hang on, Jotaro!" He leaped onto Jotaro's hand where he could see the tentacle digging it's way through his friend's arm, a long, bulging vein. Grey Matter slammed his hands on the tentacle and pinched, holding the tentacle in place. "Grrr!" Grey Matter grit his teeth as he felt it squirming. "Hurry, Jotaro! I don't think I can hold it for too long!"

"Understood," Jotaro said. "Thank you, Ben!" His Stand began to slowly pull at the flesh bud. At that moment, Kakyoin opened his eyes. He saw Jotaro holding him, his Stand removing the flesh bud, and the fleshy appendage itself digging into the other Stand User's hand. "Why…are you…"

"Stand still, Kakyoin," Jotaro told him. "Your brain is done for if you move."

Grey Matter groaned as the tentacle squirmed even harder to escape his grasp. Suddenly his Stand appeared beside him, placing its hands alongside its user.

"Ben, be careful!" Avdol warned him. "The flesh bud may try to target you through JoJo!"

Grey Matter's naturally wide eyes got even wider. "What?" He felt the tentacle starting to poke against his hand. "Uh oh."

His Stand reached for Grey Matter's Ultimatrix symbol on his chest. The moment his hands came in contact with it, Grey Matter was engulfed in another green light. When the light cleared, everyone saw that Grey Matter had changed. His body was now completely crystalline, spikes jutting out of the back of his shoulders.

"W-what did he do now?" Joseph stared.

The altered alien looked himself over. "Diamond Matter? But…" He had a big grin on his face when he realized what had happened. "Sweet! My Stand can fuse with me!"

"This can work!" Avdol realized. "The flesh bud cannot pierce…Diamond Matter's crystal. It's trapped!"

Jotaro did not comment, instead he focused solely on removing the bud from Kakyoin's head. After a few more excruciating seconds, his Stand managed to pull the flesh bud completely out of Kakyoin's head.

"He did it!" Joseph cheered.

With a tug, the Stand pulled on the flesh bud. Diamond Matter removed his hands as he watched the tentacle being yanked out of Jotaro's arm. Clutching the abomination, Jotar's Stand ripped the longest tentacle from it, sending it flying. Joseph karate-chopped the bud, something resembling yellow electricity surged from his hand as it made contact. "Overdrive!" The bud promptly crumpled into dust.

In a flash of light, Diamond Matter turned back into Grey Matter. And in a second flash of light, Grey Matter reverted to Ben. "Phew. Glad that's over with." He noticed that his Stand was floating beside him. He smiled at it. "So I can use my mixed aliens again. That's pretty cool. And thanks." He gasped when the Stand nodded at him before disappearing.

Kakyoin sat up as Jotaro began walking out of the room. Rubbing his forehead for a moment, Kakyoin turned his head at Jotaro. "Wh…" He weakly stammered. As Jotaro turned around, Kakyoin tried again. "Why? Why did you risk your life to save me?"

At first Jotaro said nothing. He simply looked at Kakyoin who looked back, hoping for an answer.

"Who knows," Jotaro said as he turned back around and resumed walking. "If there even is a reason, I couldn't say."

Kakyoin looked down at the ground and Ben noticed his eyes were glistening. He walked over to the other teen. "Hey. You alright?"

Kakyoin flinched, startled by Ben's sudden presence beside him. "Oh, I think so."

Holly walked in, carrying a first aid kit. Ben stepped to the side as she began working, cleaning up and dressing Kakyoin's wounds. "There we go," She said after bandaging his head.

"Thank you," Kakyoin said gratefully.

"Kakyoin was it?" Holly asked him. "You should rest for a while. You can stay the night." She looked at her father. "Papa, get the futon ready!"

"What? Why me?" Joseph whined. He slammed his hand on the ground. "I never liked sleeping on the floor anyway. Holly, get me a real bed!"

"Papa," Holly said sternly. "When in Japan, do as the Japanese do. Ben didn't mind."

"What?" Joseph turned to Ben. "How can you like sleeping on the floor?"

"It's not that bad, Mr. Joestar," Ben said, though he was amused at how childish Joseph was acting. "I thought it was like a sleeping bag." Joseph pouted in annoyance that nobody was taking his side.

"Also," Holly added. "My name is Seiko from now on."

"Huh?!"

Holly told Joseph the same thing she had told Ben earlier. Joseph was not amused by this at all. "What kind of name is that?! 'Holly' is the name I gave my beautiful dau-"

"If you don't call me Seiko, I won't answer you," Holly told him.

"Holly!" Joseph shouted.

Holly promptly ignored him and instead turned her attention back to Kakyoin. "Does it still hurt?"

"I-it's fine," Kakyoin answered shyly.

"Holly!" Joseph shouted again.

Ben lifted a hand over his mouth as Holly continued talking to Kakyoin while Joseph kept shouting her name.

 **. . .**

Later that night, Ben stood outside, looking up at the starry night sky. Even more astonishing things had happened today, the largest of which was learning more about his Stand's power. Even though this was all happening so suddenly, he thought it was pretty cool. Man, he had some surprises in store for everyone when he got home. That brought Ben's mood down. He was starting to wonder _if_ he would get home. He had to though, he had met that future self of his, Ben 10,000, so that had to meant he got back to his own timeline somehow. Then again, Ben had enough time travel experience to know that nothing was set in stone. What awaited him at the end of this adventure?

Hearing footsteps, Ben turned his head and saw Kakyoin walking around. When the teens saw each other, Kakyoin lurched back in surprise. "Oh, hello." He said politely. "I didn't see you there."

"Hey, Kakyoin," Ben said friendly. "Couldn't sleep?"

"A little," Kakyoin admitted. He walked towards the other boy. "I don't think we were properly introduced. My name is Kakyoin Noriaki."  
"Tennyson Ben," Ben said, holding his hand out. Kakyoin was surprised by this action before he smiled and took Ben's hand. After the two shook, Kakyoin sat down. "Thank you for your help in removing that flesh bud."

"Jotaro's the one who did it," Ben said. "I just kept it from getting to him."

"Perhaps he would have pulled it out of me in time but you certainly made things easier for him," Kakyoin pointed out. "By the way, from what I saw as Jotaro was taking out the bud, you have a Stand and something else. That gauntlet-like thing on your wrist."

Ben nodded as he rolled his sleeve up, revealing the Ultimatrix. "It was this thing. It lets me turn into aliens."

Kakyoin stood up. "Aliens?!"

"That's right. And that's not all. I'm from the future. We think someone with a Stand sent me back in time. Why this year and this place, I don't know, but that's what we've got so far." Ben knew it was a risk telling Kakyoin about this, but he felt the guy deserved to have Ben be completely straight with him.

Kakyoin stared at Ben, stunned. After a moment, he relaxed. "I want to find what you just told me to be ridiculous but, somehow I can tell you're not lying to me."

Ben laughed. "That's what the others said when I told them."

"But how did you acquire a device like that?" Kakyoin inquired.

And so Ben told him, though he gave a much shorter version than the one he told the others. Kakyoin was still captivated by his story.

"Amazing," Kakyoin said. "A device like that _and_ a Stand? That's incredible."

"I know, right?" Ben looked at the Ultimatrix again. "At first I thought my Stand could only turn into my aliens too. I mean, that's helpful and all but a little, I don't know, disappointing. But now I know we can fuse aliens together, I can't wait to see the combos and moves I could try with this thing."

"Hmm. Why don't we try?" Kakyoin suggested.

Ben looked at him. "Huh?"

"Why don't we have a spar?" Kakyoin offered.

"Are you sure?" Ben asked hesitantly. "After everything that's happened so far?"

"My Stand did take some damage during my fight with Jotaro. I want to make sure it's alright," Kakyoin told him. "Besides, I find myself intrigued by your Ultimatrix and Stand. Also, this well help me get tired faster."

Ben was still reluctant. "Uh, alright. But we'll stop the moment things go too far."

"I agree," Kakyoin said. "Let's go somewhere we cannot do any damage to this house."

The two boys walked around the wooded areas surrounding the house. Once they found a clearing, the two faced each other.

"Ready?" Kakyoin asked.

Ben grinned. "Ready!"

"Hierophant Green!" At Kakyoin's command, his Stand appeared. It looked like a humanoid robot with a green armored texture that made Ben think somewhat of a watermelon.

"It's Hero Time!" He announced, activating the Ultimatrix. He slammed the dial down. He transformed into a creature that looked like a large, white, black, and green dragonfly, with four eye stalks. "Stinkfly!" He cried in a raspy voice. His Stand materialized beside him, raising its fists.

"How interesting," Kakyoin said, studying the alien. He took a quick sniff of the air and grimaced. "I can see why you call him Stinkfly."

Stinkfly chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah. Sorry."

"What about your Stand?"

"I uh, haven't come up with a name for him yet."

"Ah," Kakyoin rubbed his chin. "Well then. Shall we begin?"

Stinkfly readied himself. "Let's!"

Kakyoin grinned. Hierophant Green brought his hands together as a green liquid shot out of his palms.

"What the…"

"Emerald Splash!" Kakyoin shouted. Hierophant Green thrusts its hands out, the liquid hardening into multiple gemlike stones that were propelled at Stinkfly with the force of a shotgun blast.

Stinkfly yelped as he launched himself into the air, just barely dodging the emerald projectiles, which slammed into the spot where he had been standing. Stinkfly looked over the damage. "Whoa."

"My Stand may not have the same strength as Jotaro's," Kakyoin admitted. "But it makes up for it with its range! Now show me what you can really do!" Hierophant Green launched another Emerald Splash, Stinkfly dodging again before dive-bombing at Kakyoin and Hierophant Green. He fired a green goop out of his eyes at Kakyoin, whose own eyes widened as the gunk blasted him, knocking him back into a tree behind him. Kakyoin grunted as he struggled against the goop. Hierophant Green fired another blast of Emerald Splash but Stinkfly swerved out of the way in time.

"Interesting," Kakyoin said. "Quite the useful ability you have there, Ben. Or rather, Stinkfly. But like I said, my Stand specializes in long range combat!" Hierophant Green launched itself at Ben, soaring through the air. Stinkfly was so caught off guard by this that he wasn't able to protect himself as the Stand slammed into him, sending him crashing to the ground. Ben's own Stand sprung into action, curling its fist back to punch Hierophant Green. But as it started lashing out, Hierophant Green held out one of its hands, its fingers extending like tentacles and wrapping around the other Stand, who struggled against its bindings.

"Huh?" Stinkfly weakly picked himself, trying to figure out what had happened. Then he saw. Hierophant Green's lower body had changed from a pair of legs into a long tentacle, winding all the way to the ground, like a snake.

"My Stand's body is composed of wound-up coils," Kakyoin explained. "It can unwind those coils to not only attack from long distance but from multiple angles."

"That's handy," Stinkfly muttered as he picked himself up. His Stand then activated its own Ultimatrix. It slammed the dial down and in a flash of green light, it transformed into a creature that looked like a bipedal raptor wearing a black helmet, with ball-like structures on the bottoms of its feet. "XLR8. Nice!"

Kakyoin frowned. "So your Stand has transformed now. I thought it could only do that when you fuse. So this shall be a two on one fight?" He smiled now. "Sounds fun."

XLR8 began shaking at a rapid speed, the vibrations loosening up Hierophant Green's elongated fingers. Once free, XLR8 dashed at Hierophant Green at blinding speed, repeatedly kicking the Stand in the face. Hierophant Green staggered back, Kakyoin grunting as he felt the blows delivered to his Stand. Hierophant Green tried to punch XLR8 who swiftly dodged once again.

"Fast," Kakyoin said, marveling at the sight in front of him.

Stinkfly took advantage of XLR8's distraction and flew at Hierophant Green, slamming him back. XLR8 joined in the attack, ramming into Hierophant Green at high speed. Kakyoin grunted from the double bodyslams.

Stinkfly noticed this and quickly backed off. "Sorry. I got carried away."

Kakyoin took deep breaths. "It's…alright, Ben. I guess I haven't recovered as much as I wanted. But I can still fight."

"Are you sure?" Stinkfly asked him in concern.

Kayoin suddenly chuckled. "Why don't you see for yourself?"

"Huh?" Stinkfly felt something tug on him before he was launched into the air. The whole world spun before something else slammed into him, knocking him back down onto the ground. Groaning, Stinkfly sat up, rubbing his head. He looked down and saw that XLR8 was what collided with him. He then spotted something attached to his tail. One of Hierophant Green's coils! He saw there was one wrapped around XLR8's leg too. Kakyoin must've done it while Stinkfly was distracted talking to him. He quickly slashed through the tendrils with one of his pincers. "Cheap shot."

Kakyoin chuckled. "Considering I'm outnumbered, I must use whatever methods I can."

"Eh, I can respect that," Stinkfly admitted, remembering all the times he had been outnumbered in his own adventures. Besides, that was pretty clever of Kakyoin. Stinkfly saw that he would really have to be careful against this guy.

Stinkfly looked over at XLR8, deciding to try something out. "Ready to fuse again?"

XLR8 nodded, reaching out and grabbing the Ultimatrix symbol. In a flash of green light, XLR8 and Stinkfly were gone. In their place was a new alien. He had Stinkfly's body, eyes and wings, along with XRL8's head and bluish skin. "XLRFly!" He cried.

"Hmm. Another fused alien. Time to see what he can do." Hierophant Green fired another blast of Emerald Splash at the mix-matched alien, who flew out of the way at blinding speed before slamming into Hierophant Green again. The other Stand fired its coils but XLRFly dodged again. "I see," he said to himself. "XLR8's speed combined with Stinkfly's flight will make for a formidable opponent indeed. My best bet is to catch him by surprise."

Hierophant Green fired another Emerald Splash, which XLRFly dodged again. So far, this match had consisted of Hierophant Green constantly firing Emerald Splashes while XLRFly kept flying out of the way. XLRFly then fired more globs of slime at Hierophant Green's hands. The Stand shook its hands but the slime would not come off.

"Ha!" XLRFly cheered. "Now it can't use Emerald Splash anymore! I'm going in!" He dove down at Hierophant Green.

Kakyoin chuckled. "Going in? Yes, you are."

"What?" XLRFly asked. Multiple tentacle appendages shot out of the trees. "Uh oh." He quickly pulled back, causing the tendrils to collide with each other. Kakyoin curled his lip at his trap failing. "Close but not close enough, Kakyoin."

But then Kakyoin's look of annoyance changed back to one of confidence. "Oh? Not close enough, you say?"

"Oh no," XLRFly felt the pull on him immediately. Hierophant Green had a backup plan. One lone coil had snuck up on him while he was focused on the ones in front of him. As XLRFly was flung backward, he grabbed onto Hierophant Green's coil and pulled.

"What?!" Kakyoin cried as Hierophant Green was yanked into the air after XLRFly. The Stand barely had time to retaliate as XLRFly fired even more slime at it, completely coating the Stand from its neck downward. XLRFly grinned in satisfaction as he felt himself slam into a nearby tree, the sheer force causing the tree to topple over.

Kakyoin chuckled. "Even when I had gained the upper hand, you found a way to turn the tables on me."

"That was pretty clever though," XLRFly said as he stood up and brushed himself off. "No offense but I can see why Dio was interested in you."

"Perhaps, though I am grateful Jotaro defeated me and removed the flesh bud," Kakyoin said. "So, Ben? Shall we call this a draw?"

XLRFly nodded. "A draw." He flew over to Hierophant Green and started scrapping off the slime from its body. Once he was finished, he flew over to Kakyoin and scrapped the slime off of him too. Once Kakyoin was free, XLRFly was engulfed in another flash of green light, revealing Stinkfly and XLR8. Another burst of green light and Ben was standing beside his Stand.

"That was kinda fun," Ben said.

"It was," Kakyoin admitted. He let out a grunt before falling on one knee. Ben rushed to his side. Kakyoin chuckled weakly. "Guess that match took more out of me than I thought." A yawn escaped his lips.

"No kidding," Ben laughed as he helped Kakyoin to his feet. "Guess it's time for you to get some sleep."

"I guess it is," Kakyoin said as Ben helped him back to the Kujo estate.

"Well that was impressive."

Kakyoin and Ben looked up to see Jotaro, Joseph, and Avdol standing in front of them, smiles on the latter two's faces.

"You both displayed incredible skill with your Stands," Avdol praised. "That was quite the fight. It not only shows the powers of your Stands but also both of your own ingenuity. Even a Stand with an impressive power is useless if the User lacks the proper mindset to wield that power to its fullest. You both did very well."

"Come on," Joseph said jovially, helped Kakyoin. "Holly will fret if she realizes you're out of bed while still recovering."

"Oh, yes," Kakyoin said. "Sorry about that, Mr. Joestar."

"Eh, it's alright. Shows how resilient you are after everything you've been through. Heh. But I must say, you two put on quite the show, eh, Jotaro?"

"…Not bad," Jotaro conceded, touching the brim of his hat.

Ben just shook his head. "Eh, I'll take it."

Joseph and Kakyoin both chuckled as the group returned to the Kujo household.

 **. . .**

"Holly! Oi, Holly!"

Ben was roused from his sleep by the sudden shouting. Sitting up, he could light peeking through the room. So it was morning and Mr. Joestar was shouting about something. Was he still annoyed about sleeping on a futon?"

"You gave me Jotaro's pants!" Joseph shouted. "I mean, they fit me, but I can't wear them!"

Ben snorted as he got out of bed. It was funny how Mr. Joestar could go from a serious man to an overdramatic goofball. To be fair, it would be weird for him to wear his grandson's pants instead of his own.

Once he was fully dressed, Ben left his guest room. Walking around, Ben wondered what everyone else was up to. Jotaro had likely gone to school, Kakyoin was probably still recovering, Holly was probably off doing some cleaning, Avdol was the only one whose pastime Ben didn't know. They hadn't gotten much opportunity to hang out yet.

"Ms. Holly!" That was Avdol's voice and he sounded worried. Ben dashed to where he had heard Avdol and found an open door. He looked inside and froze. Avdol was holding an unconscious Holly in his arms, the refrigerator door hanging open.

"What happened?" Ben asked.

"She seems to have collapsed," Avdol said worriedly. He put a hand to her head. "She's burning with a high fever." Then Avdol spotted something that made him nervous. "It can't be."

"What is it? What's wrong?" Ben asked.

Avdol gently placed Holly on the floor and turned her over. "I'm sorry," he told her before pulling her shirt down, revealing her back. Ben was about to ask what he was doing when what appeared to be raspberries and thorns appeared on Holly's back. "Is that…"

Avdol reached out to touch the thorns but his hands passed through them. "It is. Holly has developed a Stand!"

Ben shook his head. "Wait, the _Stand_ isdoing this to her? But why?"

"A Stand is controlled by the user's mental strength and fighting spirit," Avdol explained. "But Ms. Holly is a very gentle and peaceful person. She lacks the strength to control her Stand, that's why it's harming her."  
Ben's jaw dropped. Stands could possibly kill their Users just for being pacifistic. As much as he thought his Stand was cool, hearing this did affect his opinion on them in general. Noticing that the room had gotten darker, Ben turned around to see Joseph and Jotaro standing in the doorway, staring at Holly.

"A Stand," Joseph murmured. His body quivered. "Holly…"

Jotaro's lip curled. Despite regarding his mother as annoying, it showed how much he truly did care about his mother.

Joseph then grabbed Jotaro by the collar of his jacket and slammed his grandson against the wall, screaming in anger and anguish. After his outburst, Joseph lowered his head, his grip on his grandson loosening. "This," he said weakly, his voice breaking. "This is the thing I feared the most. My daughter has developed a Stand. I knew she wouldn't have the power to control it. I even knew she wouldn't have the power to deny the curse from Dio's soul." He whimpered, close to breaking into tears when Jotaro grabbed him by his left arm, and if Ben remembered correctly, that was his artificial arm, and slowly pried his grandfather off of him.

"Now," Jotaro said evenly. "What do we do?"

Joseph stepped away from his grandson as the rest drew their attention to him.

"There is only thing we can do," Joseph said before looking his grandson square in the eye. "We must find Dio! We need to kill Dio and lift the curse. It's all we _can_ do."

Ben looked back over at Holly, who was breathing weakly and her face was flushed. He wondered if Dio even knew that he had affected her in such a way. Of course, he had a strong feeling that Dio didn't care if he did know. Or, he would actually enjoy it since he hated the Joestar family so much.

Ben's jaw was set. This Dio was a monster and he needed to go down. He turned back around. "How do we find him?"

 **. . .**

Ben, Jotaro, Joseph, and Avdol were all in the living room, Joseph making sure his daughter was gently placed in a futon with a damp cloth on her forehead. Right now the group was standing over various pictures that Joseph had taken with his Stand. They were all different pictures of Dio.

"It's no use," Joseph said. "The background is too dark in all of these spirit photos. It's impossible to tell where he is with these."

"Vampires are weak to sunlight, right?" Ben said as he picked up one of the photos, namely the one he had first seen Joseph create. He glared at the vampire in it. "Guess it makes sense that Dio would be in a dark place away from the sun. Wish he would have bothered using candles or something."

"I don't suppose you have an alien that could help us out here, Ben?" Joseph said, though his tone implied he wasn't very hopeful.

Ben sadly shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I don't. My cousin Gwen could've probably helped us but…"

"I thought as much but it didn't hurt to ask," Joseph said as he put down one of the photos he had been looking at. "We've tried so many different ways to analyze them but the darkness has caused them all to fail."

Ben was certain that if he had access to Plumber technology, then they would make some headway.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Jotaro, who had standing off to the side, asked. He reached out his hand towards the photo Ben was holding. Ben placed it in his hand. "Maybe I can find something." His Stand appeared. "Hiding in that darkness!" He gave the photograph to his Stand, who looked over it carefully. Jotaro followed his Stand's line of sight. "What do you see behind Dio?"

"It found something?" Ben asked, eager to have a lead.

Jotaro walked over to a drawer and pulled out a memo book and pencil. "My Stand has enough accuracy to remove a flesh bud from someone's brain and enough precision to catch a bullet. He can make a sketch." He handed the pencil over to his Stand while he held the memo book out. The Stand began to draw. Everyone gathered around Jotaro and his Stand as it rapidly drew. The group waited with baited breath as an image quickly started to form on the paper. In less than a minute, the Stand was finished. It had drawn the picture of a…

"A fly!" Ben looked back and forth between the sketch of the fly and the picture of Dio. He couldn't make out a single thing in the darkness. Ben knew Jotaro had already said his Stand was accurate and precise but this was beyond what the hero had expected.

Joseph was not as impressed. "A fly's not going to help us…"

"Wait!" Avdol interjected. "I've seen this kind of fly before."

"What?!"

"JoJo, do you have an encyclopedia?" Avdol asked.

"We have a library," Jotaro replied.

"Give me the memo." When Jotaro gave it to him, Avdol left the room. "I will investigate at once."

Ben followed after him. "I'll help!"

Avdol nodded appreciatively. "Very well. Come, Ben!"

 **. . .**

"Jotaro wasn't kidding when he said they have a library," Ben said as he flipped through the pages of the book he was holding. Luckily a lot of these had English writing, which made things easier for him. Avdol, who was using fire from Magician's Red to illuminate what he was reading, closed the book he had skimmed. As he opened another one and scanned through the pages, he spoke once again. "You're doing well."

Ben looked over his shoulder, wondering what Avdol was talking about before turning his head towards the doorway. Kakyoin was standing there, a little anxious after being noticed.

"Hey, Kakyoin," Ben waved at him.

"Hello, Ben," Kakyoin said before turning his attention back to Avdol. "Is it really possible for your Stand to kill you?"

"Yes," Avdol said grimly. "I've seen it happen many times before."

Ben stopped his reading to look back over at Avdol. "What…what's going to happen to Jotaro's mom if we don't stop Dio?"

"The Stand may have appeared on her back but soon it will spread throughout her entire body, like a fern," Avdol said as he continued reading. "She will suffer from a high fever, various illnesses, and then eventually fall into coma. And then…she will die. To most people, if it will appear as if she is dying from an unknown illness," Avdol continued. "And not even the best doctors will be able to cure her. No one, not you, not Ben, nor I will be able to do anything about it." He closed the book and placed it among the small stacks of others he had already read.

Ben grit his teeth before starting to read at a quicker speed. He was about ready to turn into XLR8. Ben grit his teeth and started shooting through the pages at a frantic pace, prepared to dash through the entire library if he had to. Kakyoin himself was saddened by this news.

"But there is still hope," Avdol told them as he pulled out another book off the shelf. "It will take about fifty days for her to reach that point. We must find and defeat Dio by then. If we can destroy the connection between Ms. Holly and Dio's Stand, we can save her."

"We will," Ben declared, causing the other two Stand Users to look at him. He looked back at them, his face set. "I won't let Dio get away with this! He's tormented everyone, especially the Joestars, long enough. It's time for him to pay!"

"Well said, Ben," Avdol told him as he went back to reading.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Kakyoin offered.

"We could use an extra set of eyes," Ben told him. "We're trying to identify a fly that Jotaro's Stand saw in a photo of Dio."

"Understood," Kakyoin entered the room, plucked a book from a shelf and started reading.

"So Dio has a Stand too," Ben said as he put up his book. "I wonder what his can do."

"I couldn't say," Avdol replied as he put his book down. "I managed to escape before he could use his Stand. But I can imagine it is something terrifying."

"The really messed up part is the fact that he's a vampire with a Stand," Ben said, slamming another book shut. "That seems a little unfair."

Kakyoin snorted. "Considering you have a Stand _and_ turn into aliens, isn't it hypocritical of you to say Dio's unfair?"

"Hey, I use my powers for good!" Ben retorted.

"Oh, so it's okay to be unfair as long as you use your powers for good?" Kakyoin turned it around on Ben.

"That's not what I…" Ben stared to argue when Avdol walked out of the room. Ben and Kakyoin looked at each other briefly before running after him.

 **.** **. .**

"Mr. Joestar," Avdol said at the doorway to the living room, Ben and Kakyoin right behind him. "I found it. The fly in the photo…"

Joseph, who had been kneeling beside his daughter, got to his feet and Avdol held the book he was carrying out. "It's here!" He pointed to a page as he put the book on the table. The group bunched around the book, seeing the fly he was pointing too. "This is the Nile Ue Ue Fly! It's only location is the Egyptian Nile River Basin! The flies with stripes on their legs are known as Aswan Ue Ue Flies."

"Egypt!" Joseph exclaimed.

"We have narrowed it down to the city of Aswan," Avdol informed him. "That is where we will find Dio."

"Egypt, huh?" Ben crossed his arms. "I didn't think he'd stick around there after you escaped him, Avdol."

"It's possible he had never settled in Cairo, simply passed through there to find me," Avdol reasoned. "Though I too am surprised that he chose to stay in Egypt."

"So, you will be going to Egypt huh?" Kakyoin asked.

The others looked up at him. "What do you mean?" Joseph asked him.

"The flesh bud was planted in my brain three months ago," Kakyoin answered. "My family and I were on vacation in Egypt. While we were at the Nile River, I met Dio."

"You were also in Egypt?" Avdol asked.

"Are your parents alright?" Ben asked, fearing the worst.  
"They're fine," Kakyoin told him. "When do you leave? I want to join you!"

"You do?" Ben asked. Avdol and Joseph looked pleased to hear this.

"Go with us?" Jotaro asked. "Why would you?"

Kakyoin smiled. "'Why?' To tell you the truth, why I want to suddenly go with you…I don't know."

It took Ben a moment to realize that Kakyoin was using the same answer Jotaro had given him the other day. Jotaro scoffed and looked to the side, also getting what Kakyoin was saying.

"I guess it's because you brought me to my senses," Kakyoin tapped his forehead for emphasis. "That's all."

Content with that answer, Joseph walked over to Holly and knelt beside her. "Holly," He said to her quietly. "We'll save you, no matter what." He smiled. "Don't worry. We'll make you better." He lightly caressed his daughter's face. "Just take it easy."

"Jojo's mother, Ms. Holly, is a woman who can calm the hearts of others," Kakyoin said softly. "People feel easier around her. This may sound awkward but if I were to fall in love, I'd like it to be with someone like her. I would give my all to protect her. And I would want to always see her warm, happy smile."

Ben couldn't help smiling at Kakyoin's words. He did have a point; Ms. Holly was such a sweet and caring woman. She didn't deserve what Dio was forcing onto her.

Joseph looked over at the others. "We're wasting time! We leave now!"

 **. . .**

After Joseph made a call, several cars arrived at the Kujo house. Ben watched with Jotaro and Kakyoin from outside as several men in suits got out and went into the house to retrieve Holly.

"These men are trustworthy doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation," Joseph explained, stepped outside with Avdol, wearing his coat and holding his fedora with a suitcase. "They'll watch Holly around the clock."

Avdol approached them. "Jojo, Ben. Before we leave, I shall name your Stands for you."

"Name it?" Jotaro asked.

"You want to name ours?" Ben scratched the back of his head. "I don't know. I usually name my own guys."

"Go for it, Ben," Joseph encouraged. "It was thanks to Avdol that I learned my Stand's name: Hermit Purple!"

"How are you going to name them?" Jotaro asked. In response, Avdol produced a deck of cards from his sleeve. "Using the cards of fate, the Tarot." Oh, Ben was definitely certain Gwen would love this. "Blindly chose a card and it shall be decided!" He started shuffling the cards. "This will suggest your fate, as well as your Stand's power." He held the deck out.

Jotaro went first, picking a card at the top of the deck. Avdol looked at it. "The Star card!" Jotaro turned it over to reveal the image of a smokey figure underneath a large star. So I shall name your Stand…Star Platinum!" He held the deck out to Ben next. "Your turn."

Ben was still a little uncertain about all of this but part of him actually wanted to give this a try. He wondered what it would be like for someone else to name one of his guys instead. He drew a card from the deck and held it out to Avdol.

"Ooooh. How interesting. The Ace of Wands from the Minor Arcana."

"Ace of Wands?" Ben turned the card over. It had the image of a hand holding a large stick.

"The Ace of Wands represents creativity, enthusiasm, confidence, and courage," Avdol elaborated. "All these things I have seen in you despite the brief time I have known you. And so, I shall call your Stand…Emerald Ace!"

"Emerald Ace," Ben mulled the name over. It was different compared to the names he normally used but, he had to admit, Emerald Ace was a pretty sweet sounding name on its own.

* * *

 **Jotaro Kujo**

 **Stand name: Star Platinum!**

 **Power: Superhuman strength and precision!**

* * *

 **Joseph Joestar**

 **Stand name Hermit Purple!**

 **Power: Spirit Photographs!**

* * *

 **Mohammed Avdol**

 **Stand name: Magician's Red!**

 **Power: Flame and heat!**

* * *

 **Noriaki Kakyoin**

 **Stand name: Hierophant Green!**

 **Power: Long distance and Emerald Splash!**

* * *

 **Ben Tennyson**

 **Stand name: Emerald Ace!**

 **Power: Ultimatrix and fusions!**

* * *

"Alright!" Joseph said. "We're off!" All five Stand Users stood together, ready to head to Egypt, defeat Dio, and end his curse once and for all.

"Let's go!"

 **End**

 **Good day, everybody! I hope you all enjoyed this one-shot and might I say, what a one-shot it is! I'll be honest everyone, I was not expecting it to be as long as it turned out. But, there were a lot of things I wanted to cover. So there you have, the first one-shot of my ideas for Ben 10/JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I would also like to thank Vandenbz for his editing and proofreading.  
**

 **These stories are going to cover Ben as he travels from Part 3 all the way to Part 6, with my own twists on things.  
**

 **Major props goes to Animeguy1101, whose guidance helped me get this far. What do you guys think of Ben's Stand, Emerald Ace? I know some of you will feel that it's basically the Biomnitrix but that's the beauty of it. Now Ben doesn't need the Biomnitrix. His Stand can fuse aliens for him. I had briefly considered that Emerald Ace actually function more like Skurd from Omniverse, but I think this idea might work better.**

 **So watch as Ben joins the Stardust Crusaders, learns that Diamond is Unbreakble, feels the Vento Aureo, and travels through the Stone Ocean.**

 **On a minor note, this means I will soon be welcoming the Stand Users of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to appear in upcoming chapters of my Bigby's Den so I hope at least some of you will be looking forward to that.**

 **Of course, a lot of you will worry that now that I've written this, I'm going to focus on this and ignore my other work. Don't worry, since these are all one-shots, I'm going to update them infrequently. I just wanted to get this one out of system ASAP. As such, now I'm going back to focus on Bleach: Ultimate Alien and the War of Tales. Whenever I feel writer's block regarding those stories, I'll probably return to my one-shots to at least keep my creativity flowing.**

 **Also, I have some more story challenges courtesy of my friend Mace Sheperd. This is what he asked me to post:**

* * *

 **"** A tokyo ghoul one piece animorphs crossover

Here is the setting

It is the world of one piece with ghouls from tokyo ghoul living in it

And this world exist in the animorphs universe, in other words instead of the animorphs earth existing, this version of the one piece world where ghouls exist

Takes up the spot where the animorphs earth should

So to sum it up animorphs space with animorphs aliens, one piece earth with ghouls

The plot

The plot begins at the return to saboady arc when the straw hats reunite after the timeskip

And there is one OC straw hat the writer has to make up, this OC straw hat must be a ghoul (a ghoul with an ukaku kagune to be exact)

The oc straw hat ghoul's name and gender are up to the writer but said character must have an ukaku kagune and have a devil fruit (the writer can come up with any kind of original devil fruit they want to give the OC)

Now the OC can either have been part of the crew pre timeskip or luffy meets him/ her when he (Luffy) returns to Saboady and asks him/her to join his crew (that sounds like luffy)

Anyways the straw hat crew reunite with the OC ghoul straw hat member and they set sail to Fishman island

Once they arrive on Fishman island under the sea they meet Aximili in the remains of his andalite domeship

They learn about the yeerks and how the yeerks are planning on infesting devil fruit users

Aximili gets a human morph by aquiring the DNA of Franky, Sanji and Brook (ending up looking like a combination between Brook when he was alive, Franky and Sanji in his human morph) and his morph being as strong as the three combined

Aximili can not aquire devil fruit powers by morphing, I put this rule in place so that visser 3 can't do it either

However that doesn't stop the yeerks from infesting devil fruit users and experimenting on them in an attempt to find out how they work

Now only creatures native to earth can use haki, there are no aliens that can use haki

So Aximili will only gain haki when he aquires his human morph from Brook, Franky and Sanji

So anyways the story is suppossed to show how ghouls are treated by the world government (which I'm betting is NOT good considering how harsh the world government can be)

And to show the straw hats with Aximili as a new crew member jouneying through the new world while fighting the yeerks

And of course to show what Aximili, the other andalites and the yeerks think of devil fruits and of earth and all its strangeness."

* * *

 **I also have other challenges posted in the Author's Note of my latest Bigby's Den chapter. If anyone would be interested in taking this challenge or the ones posted there, feel free contact Mace Sheperd and let him know you are interested!**

 **That's all I've really got to say. Let me know what you guys think. See ya later!**


	2. Tower of Gray

**Disclaimer: Ben 10 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure do not belong to me. The only thing I say I own is Ben's Stand, Emerald Ace.**

 _Sadly, I wasn't able to get that new laptop yet. Been over a year and I still haven't managed to save enough money to buy a new one. Let's just say I screwed up a lot and leave it at that. Trying to cut back on my dragging monologues. So, instead, I decided to just use the old method of typing stories on my screwed up laptop, transfer the documents to my new phone I got in October, and then upload them from there. Probably should have done this a while ago but…well what can you do?_

 _Alsob thank you for your proofreading Vandenbz._

 _Anyway, onto the story:_

 **Ben Tennyson, hero of the universe, was ambushed by an unseen assailant and found himself in Japan, 1989. There he met Jotaro Kujo and discovered the two of them possessed mysterious spirits. Jotaro's grandfather, Joseph Joestar, revealed the identities of these strange entities: Stands. He proceeded to tell the boys about the Joestar's ancient nemesis, the vampire Dio Brando, whose return triggered the Stands amongst the Joestar bloodline. After freeing a boy named Kakyoin from Dio's control, the heroes discovered that Jotaro's mother, Holly, was slowly being killed by her own Stand. Having located Dio, the group set out for Egypt to confront him.**

 **Stardust Crusaders Part Two: Tower of Gray**

Ben laughed. "No way! Are you serious?"

Joseph grinned widely. "I wouldn't make up something like this."

"You actually sent him into outer space?"

The group was currently on a plane heading for Egypt. Joseph had been telling Ben, who was sitting behind him and Jotaro, about his past adventures, namely his battles against the Pillar Men, a group of powerful, ancient humanoids who created the Stone Mask.

"And I told Kars that I planned that from the beginning," Joseph laughed. "A total lie but I knew it would get under his skin if he thought I had. I can't say for certain what happened to him but since he never returned, I'm hoping he froze solid up in space."

"I just hope he didn't land on some other planet but I'm pretty sure the Plumbers would have heard of someone like him by now," Ben rationalized. "I'm still curious about that Hamon thing. A breathing technique really gives you energy like the Sun and can do all those cool things you told me about?"

"That's right!" Joseph said. "Outside of sunlight or completely destroying the brain, Hamon is the only way to kill a vampire created by the Stone Mask. It's what my grandfather used to battle Dio."

"So that's why Dio cut off his head." Ben nodded. "Is it possible for me to learn Hamon?"

"Oi, oi," Joseph chuckled. "Your watch, your Stand, and Hamon? That's a bit overkill, don't you think?"

"Hey, the Ultimatrix is cool and all but I can't rely on it all the time," Ben said casually. "Besides, it'd be like having my own superpower."

"Well, we'll see if you can do it," Joseph conceded. "I heard that only one out of a thousand people have what it takes to properly wield Hamon. But if I'm perfectly honest, I think your chances are high."

Ben grinned back. "Sweet." He leaned back in his chair. Vampires, Pillar Men, Hamon, Stands, it was all incredible. The more Ben thought about it, the more he wondered. How come he had never learned about these things in the future? In all his adventures, Ben had never met any Hamon or Stand users. It made sense, however, since Stands could only be seen by other users. He could have passed by countless users all his life and wouldn't have known the difference. Plus Hamon and Stand abilities could just be labeled as powers like Avdol had. Did the Plumbers know about Hamon and Stands? Or the Speedwagon Foundation? These were things he hoped to find out when he got back home.

Ben shook his head. Thoughts about home would have to wait, Dio took priority right now. Speaking of which…

"Hey, Mr. Joestar?"

"Hmm?"

"When we do face this Dio, you're the best chance of fighting him since only you can use Hamon right?"

Joseph held up his hand. "Maybe. I'm not as young as I used to be while Dio looks to still be in his prime. And that's not even going into what kind of Stand he might have."

"Right…" Ben ran a hand through his hair. "I mean, if we fight him together, we should stand a chance right?"

"If we're lucky," Joseph said grimly. "Dio's vampire powers and his Stand…"

"Wish there was a way we could find out what Stand he has," Ben said.

"Wouldn't Dio's followers know?" Jotaro asked.

"Hard to tell," Joseph replied. "If so, only those as close to Dio as possible should know anything about his Stand."

"We're gonna need a plan once we land in Egypt," Ben said. "If you want, I can try to draw out Dio's Stand."

Joseph became uneasy. Jotaro looked at Ben intensely. "Ben, I don't think that's a good idea…"

"I don't know how much better I'll do at fighting Dio but I know I've got the best chance at surviving." Ben said firmly. Not only because he had Diamondhead and his durability or Ghostfreak and his intangibility, but Ben had a feeling that the Ultimatrix wouldn't let him die. His theory involved the Omnitrix and Ultimatrix having a failsafe: if he was ever fatally wounded, he would be turned into a different alien to survive. That explained why he was turned into Diamondhead during his rematch with Vilgax after getting shattered as Chromastone.

Joseph put his hat over his eyes. "I don't like the idea of you risking your life like that just to reveal Dio's Stand but…perhaps you do have a point. But be careful. The last thing we need is for Dio to put a flesh bud inside of you."

Ben looked over at Kakyoin sympathetically. "Trust me, not really in a rush to get one of those stuck in my head."

. . .

Somewhere in Egypt, Dio Brando raised an arm. Purple vines sprouted from his skin as he struck a camera. A photograph emerged which he quickly snatched. On the picture was Jotaro and Joseph, sitting on a plane. "As I anticipated. They have discovered my location. Will you find me here in Egypt? Joseph? Jotaro?"

. . .

Joseph flinched, shock all over his face.

"What is it?" Ben asked in concern, drawing Jotaro's attention.

Joseph tensed. "It's Dio." Ben and Jotaro were immediately on alert. "I could tell he was watching us just now."

Ben's eyes darted around the plane. "How?"

"Whether it's his Stand or one of his followers," Joseph said anxiously. "I know Dio was watching us. Be on guard. An enemy user may be on the plane right now."

"Great," Ben grumbled.

. . .

Dio looked over a series of photographs he had taken. His enemies were laid out before him. "Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, Avdol, so he has decided to help the Joestars, eh, Kakyoin. It seems they were able to remove my flesh bud from him. And then…"

"What troubles you, Lord Dio?" An elderly female voice asked devotedly.

Dio held up a photograph. "This boy," The picture was of Ben chatting with Joseph. "He's the only one I know nothing about. His Stand, his relation to the Joestars, he is an unkown."

"Bah. Even so, he is no match for the likes of you, Lord Dio."

"Perhaps," Dio said, his eyes still fixed on Ben's picture. "I have a strong feeling that there is more to this boy than meets the eye."

"Of course, Lord Dio, hence why I told my assassins to take extra precautions. They will not reach their destination safely."

. . .

A bead of sweat ran down Ben's brow. The Stand user was most likely among them. Aside from the fact that they had no idea what the User was capable of, there were so many innocent people on board the plane too! How were they supposed to fight without harming the passengers or the plane?

It also reminded Ben of what Avdol said before they boarded:

 _"Ben. I know you're used to fighting your own battles but I highly recommend that, unless absolutely necessary, you leave any fights against Stand users to Emerald Ace."_

 _"What? Why?"_

 _"Although people can see the effects that our Stands have, such as moving objects or increasing the temperature, they can brush these things off as hallucinations or some type of phenomenon. If they see you transform, people will panic and draw unnecessary attention, which will make reaching Egypt that much harder. Besides, we must try to keep the full extent of your abilities a secret. They may be just the trump card we need when we finally face Dio."_

 _"How do I do that? Emerald Ace acts on its own."_

 _"Not entirely. From what I've gathered, your Stand reacts subconsciously to what you believe is the best alien for the job. When I faced Jotaro in the cell, you wanted something to counter Magician's Red, so it became Heatblast. When Jotaro was removing Kakyoin's fleshbud, you sought to keep it from attacking Jotaro, so it fused with you into Diamond Matter. When you spared with Kakyoin, you wanted something that could handle Hierophant Green's range and maneuverability."_

 _"So all those times my Stand transformed, it was reacting to what I wanted?"_

 _"Like a martial artist training with weapons, you must see the Stand as an extension of yourself rather than a separate entity."_

That was easy for Avdol to say. He had years of experience with Magician's Red. Ben felt like he had all those years ago when he first got the Omnitrix: having no idea what he was doing and just winging it.

Ben paused when he heard a faint buzzing noise. Jotaro and Joseph looked up as Avdol and Kakyoin roused from their slumber. The buzzing, like the wings of an insect, was getting closer. Everyone saw it at once. A beetle was flying above the seats.

Jotaro stood up. "A rhinoceros beetle? No, a stag beetle?"

"Avdol," Joseph leaned forward as the beetle flew down the aisles. "Is that beetle a Stand? Could we already be encountering another Stand user?"

"It's possible," Avdol replied. "It could be a bug-shaped Stand."

Ben raised a brow. "If it is a Stand, what can it do?"

Joseph stood up when the buzzing stopped. "It hid in the shadows of the seat."

Ben and Jotaro got to their feet too. The buzzing resumed but nobody could make out the direction it was coming from. Jotaro approached where the beetle had disappeared to. Ben's hands went to the Ultimatrix but stopped. "This is going to be hard," he whispered to himself.

"It's behind you, Jojo!" Kakyoin shouted.

Jotaro turned his head. The beetle was buzzing around the side of his head. Now that it was right beside them, the group noticed how huge it was. Ben guessed it was roughly the same size as Grey Matter, maybe a little bigger. The bug opened its mouth, a bladed and armored appendage emerging.

"That's kinda gross," Ben admitted.

"I'll handle it." Jotaro declared.

"Be careful," Avdol cautioned. "I've heard of a User with an insect Stand who likes ripping the tongues from its victims."

Ben's head snapped towards Avdol. "That would have been nice to know before!"

"Ora!" Star Platinum appeared and brought its hand down in a chop to strike the insect, only for it to fly out of the way, much to the group's shock.

Ben's eyes widened. "Whoa! That thing actually dodged Star Platinum."

"Unbelievable," Avdol murmured as the beetle buzzed in front of Jotaro and Star Platinum. "Star Platinum has enough speed and precision to grab a bullet, yet it dodged so easily."

"It must be a Stand," Kakyoin concluded as the beetle disappeared again. "That bug has to be a Stand." His eyes darted back and forth. "Where is it? Where did it go? And where is the person controlling it?"

"Look out!" Ben shouted as the beetle flew in front of Jotaro again. It launched the appendage, which appeared to be an extending tongue, at Jotaro. Star Platinum moved in between them and blocked the stinger with its palm, only for the stinger to burst through and aim for the other Stand's mouth, no doubt to grab its tongue.

"Jojo!

"Jotaro!"

Star Platinum chomped down on the stinger just as it reached its mouth, but the action took a toll on Jotaro whose jaw and hand were bleeding.

"That was way too close," Ben said. "I'm sure glad Clancy didn't have bugs like this or I would have had some real trouble when I fought him."

"Since he tried to tear off the tongue of Jotaro's Stand," Avdol said grimly. "It must be him! The Tower Tarot card! His Stand represents destruction, calamity, and the interruption of journeys: Tower of Gray! Tower of Gray is a malicious Stand who commits mass murder and then frames them as accidents. The airplane crash in England last year, which killed three hundred people, is thought to be his doing."

"Three hundred?!" Ben stared at the Stand in a mix of shock and anger.

"ORAORAORAORA!" Star Platinum cried, unleashing a flurry of rapid punches that destroyed the tongue but when it went to attack Tower of Gray, it dodged out of the way again.

"It dodged!" Avdol exclaimed. "It evaded blows from not only one but two fists simultaneously?! It's so fast!"

The beetle suddenly cackled. "Even if you shot ten guns simultaneously from one centimeter away, they would never be able to touch my Stand! Not that my Stand would be killed by a bullet, anyway!" It cackled again.

"The Stand can talk?" Ben wondered.

"No, users are capable of talking through their Stands," Avdol explained. "Tower of Gray's user is doing this so we cannot figure out their true identity."

"Clever," Ben said dryly, glaring at the Stand, only for it to disappear again. "Watch out! It got away!"

Everyone looked frantically, their guards up in case each of them was the next target.

"It moved over there!" Kakyoin cried. Tower of Grey was floating in the middle row of seats before descending behind the seat of one of the male passengers.

"How are we going to…" Ben started to ask when a blur shot through the seat of the man that the Tower of Grey had hidden behind. Ben's insides clenched as the man cried out before immediately slumping over. In less time than he had to blink, the exact same thing happened to the next three men directly down the row. Out of the mouth of the front-most man burst Tower of Grey, the tongues of its victims skewered on its stinger. In that short amount of time, Tower of Grey had brutally murdered four people.

"Bingo!" Tower of Grey cheered. "I got their tongues. And now…" The beetle Stand flew over to the back of the plane and began writing with the blood of its victims. The group's blood ran cold when Tower of Grey finished, for it used its victims blood to write -

Massacre

Kakyoin trembled. "It…it actually did it…"

"That's it!" Ben yelled, grabbing the Ultimatrix. "You're going down!"

"Wait, Ben! Don't do it!" Kakyoin's words halted Ben in his tracks.

Just then a short, balding old man sleeping at the back sat up. "It's so noisy," he grumbled as he rubbed his eyes. "What's the ruckus?"

"Look out!" Kakyoin warned, seeing Tower of Grey hover above the old man who seemed not to hear Kakyoin as he got up.

"I guess I'll use the toilet," The man muttered. As he headed towards the bathroom, his hand brushed against the wall Tower of Grey had written on, more specifically, the message itself. "Hmm. What's this?" He looked at his fingers. He inquisitively sniffed his fingers. His face shifted to one of terror as his dentures fell out. "I-is it blood?" He stammered as he started back away. "Blood!"

Kakyoin appeared behind him and struck him in the neck. "Quiet." The man fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

"Wow, Kakyoin," Ben said. "I didn't know you knew martial arts."

"You didn't ask," Kakyoin said back cheekily. "More important though, Ben, we need to take care of this before the other passengers panic."

"And before that bug kills anymore people," Ben glared at the message on the wall. "He thinks he's fast? How about trying to dodge XLR8?"

"No, Ben," Kakyoin said firmly. "I believe we should keep your Stand's powers a secret for as long as possible. Mr. Avdol, if you were to try and fight Tower of Gray, your flames would be felt by everyone and cause the plane to explode. Jotaro, if you were to punch a hole in the fuselage it would be a disaster. My Stand is the best choice here." Kakyoin eyed Tower of Grey, which was simply hovering around them. "Hierophant Green is inconspicuous and best suited for defeating it."

"Kakyoin Noiraki, eh? I've heard all about you from Lord Dio. Don't bother," Tower of Gray said. "If you know your Stand is no match for me, then don't even challenge me. You cannot catch me at your speed."

"Is that so?" Kakyoin challenged. Hierophant Green appeared beside him. "Emerald Splash!"

Hierophant Green unleashed its barrage of stones but Tower of Gray dodged each and every one of them with ease. Kakyoin was undeterred and had Hierophant Green fire another Emerald Splash, only for Tower of Gray to avoid getting hit once again.

"Hey, watch where you shoot those things, Kakyoin!" Ben said. "You were talking about Avdol and Jotaro damaging the plane but what about you?!"

If Kakyoin had heard Ben, he didn't reply, instead focusing on Tower of Grey, firing a constant stream of Emerald Splashes as the beetle Stand zigged and zagged around the gems.

"It seems you're dumb enough to think you'll hit me if you fire enough shots, but none of them are connecting!" The Stand taunted as it flew closer to Kakyoin.

"No good," Avdol said. "It's too fast!"

"Get out of the way, Kakyoin!" Ben warned.

But the moment he said that, Tower of Gray fired its tongue at Hierophant Green, smashing its mouthpiece. Kakyoin lurched, blood spluttering out of his mouth.

"Kakyoin!" Jotaro cried as both his friend and his Stand fell to the floor.

"My speed is on an entirely different level!" Tower of Gray boasted as it flew around gleefully. "You'll never get a bingo with that speed. Now then, Kakyoin," It flew in front of Kakyoin, who had started pushing himself off the floor. "With my next attack, I'll grab your Stand's tongue with my Tower Needle and rip it out!"

Kakyoin simply responded with another Emerald Splash but once again Tower of Gray dodged. "Don't you get it?" The Stand asked, now a little bored.

"Not good. It dodged Emerald Splash again," Avdol said.

"At this rate, Kakyoin's going to get his tongue ripped out," Ben took a step forward. "I've got to help him!"

"Too late!" Tower of Gray dived at Kakyoin. "After tearing out its tongue, your Stand will shudder in utter pain."

"What? Shuddering when its tongue is torn out? My Hierophant Green?" Kakyoin inquired in a rather casual tone. Tower of Gray launched its Tower Needle. Tendrils shot out of the cushions of several different seats, stabbing Tower of Gray from multiple angles.

"What?!" Tower of Gray coughed.

"He used something like that when we sparred," Ben recognized the move.

Kakyoin smirked at his victory. "It will shudder alright. With pleasure! My Hierophant Green's tendrils had already slipped beneath the seats. Didn't you realize I was trapping you there with Emerald Splash?"

"That was your plan, the entire time?" Ben asked.

Kakyoin smiled. "Of course. The fact that I was facing a bug Stand reminded me of our match too. In my personal opinion though, XLRFly is far faster than Tower of Gray. And now…"

Hierophant Green's tendrils tore Tower of Gray to shreds. The unconscious old man awoke with a cry of agony. A beetle tattoo appeared on his tongue before it was split in two. Blood erupted from a sudden gash on his forehead.

"So that old man was the user? A disgusting Stand for a disgusting user," Kakyoin said.

Ben watched as Avdol picked up the old man and carried him to an empty seat. So destroying a Stand killed the user, and Kakyoin had killed that man without hesitation or the slightest remorse.

"Is something wrong, Ben?" Kakyoin asked, noticing how Ben's eyes followed the old man.

"Y-yeah," Ben reassured him. "I'm okay."

Kakyoin tilted his head. "Your left eye is twitching. I'm going to assume that means you're lying." Ben blanched. "Does what I did disgust you, Ben?"

"It's just…" The hero tried to say.

"You never killed anyone before?" Kakyoin asked him with complete sincerity.

Ben couldn't say he hadn't. He had destroyed that giant tick, the Great One, Ghostfreak multiple times, and then there were the causalities of his battles between the Highbreed and the DNAliens. "Only in the heat of battle."

"Did that not qualify as the heat of battle?" Kakyoin pointed out. "Or, did you think the battle was over the moment I trapped Tower of Gray?"

"Well…"

"I apologize if I make you feel uncomfortable, Ben, but with a body count of at least three hundred people, I made sure he could never kill anyone again."

Ben looked back at the old man. Avdol had him gently placed in a chair and placed a brown tarp over his body to hide him from the other passengers.

"Also," Kakyoin went on. "The only way we can hope to save Jotaro's mother is by killing Dio, or did you forget? How else could we possibly hope to end his curse?"

Ben remembered that but he had been so caught up in wanting to save Mrs. Holly that he hadn't taken that into consideration.

"We'll worry about all that when we get to Egypt," Joseph spoke up. "Right now we should relax after managing to defeat another of Dio's followers without things getting worse."

"He didn't have a flesh bud on him," Avdol said. "But I am not surprised that he would serve Dio willingly. Tower of Gray is an evil Stand that's infamous for murdering tourists, making its actions appear as accidents in exchange for pay. Dio was able to manipulate him since he is easily bought and blinded by greed."

Ben shoved his hands into his pockets. "Wonder who else Dio is going to send after us. And what their Stands can do. Not to mention how many more innocent people are going to get involved."

"And what we'll have to do when we meet them," Kakyoin added, looking at Ben, who frowned.

A cup fell off the chair arm it had been sitting on. Joseph noticed the anomaly. "That's weird. It might be my imagination but it feels like we're flying crooked."

"Uh, I think it's because we are," Ben said as he felt himself starting to slide. The room was tilting to the left side. "What's going on?"

"I-it can't be!" Joseph ran to the cockpit.

"That's not good," Ben said, running after him. The others looked at each other warily before following.

"Sir, where are you going?" A pretty stewardess with brunette hair asked Joseph. "The cockpit is up ahead, no passengers allowed."

"I know that!" Joseph told her gruffly as he pushed her aside.

"Sir!" The stewardess called again, accompanied by another stewardess with short brown hair. The two looked at each other nervously before noticing someone was behind them. They turned and faced the intense glare of the towering Jotaro. Instead of being intimidated, they were immediately starstruck, smiling at him with faint blushes on their cheeks.

"Move." Jotaro huffed, easily shoving the women aside.

"What a shock," the stewardesses sighed as they fell back, only to collide with Kakyoin who helped steady them.

"Pardon me," Kakyoin said politely. "Treating a woman like that is inexcusable but this is an emergency. Please forgive him."

"Okay," The women said dreamily as they gazed at Kakyoin.

Ben couldn't help but feel a little envious. He quickly sidestepped them and joined Joseph and Jotaro in the cockpit. "Oh no." The pilots were dead, two lying on the floor while the third was slouched over the controls of the plane.

"This is awful!" Joseph cried. "We've been had!"

"Their tongues were ripped out!" Jotaro said as Kakyoin and Avdol joined them. "That fucking stag beetle, he already killed the pilots?"

"When did he do this?!" Ben asked.

"He must have killed them first and then attacked us," Joseph said, running to the controls. "We're descending. The autopilot's been damaged too. We're going to crash!"

Ben was about to tell Joseph he had a plan but Emerald Ace appeared beside him first. His Stand activated its Ultimatrix and slammed the dial down; after the flash stood a vaguely humanoid creature with a green and black striped body resembling circuitry. The rest of the team watched as Upgrade leaped at the controls, its body liquefying as it merged with them. Soon, the liquid form began spreading from the control panel all the way to the rest of the plane.

"What was that?" Avdol asked in amazement.

"My Stand turned into Upgrade. He's part of this race called Galvanic Mechamorphs. Basically Upgrade merges with machines and makes them better," Ben explained as the plane righted itself and began ascending. "With this, we'll not only be able to make it to Egypt in one piece, we'll get there even faster!" Despite his joy, Ben was bothered by how Emerald Ace had acted without him even doing anything. Did it really act on his subconscious desired? He would need to ask Avdol and Kakyoin for help controlling his Stand after they landed.

Unaware of Ben's troubles, Joseph, Kakyoin, and Avdol smiled at this. Jotaro had that same stoic look on his face but deep down he was pleased too.

"Ben, those forms of yours never cease to amaze me," Joseph said.

A boom echoed like a thunderclap and the plane shook. They were starting to descend again, even faster than before.

"What happened?" Avdol asked.

"That sounded like an explosion," Kakyoin said with narrowed eyes.

"Explosion?" Ben ran back to the cabin and looked out the window as best he could. The back of the plane was smoking badly. "What happened?"

Mad laughter made Ben turn around. Tower of Gray's User was standing up, his head thrown back as he laughed, his split tongue waggling back and forth.

"What did you do?" Ben asked, amazed that the guy was still alive.

Turning his head towards Ben, the man's grin widened. "You. Lord Dio knows nothing about you. You're a wild card and he doesn't like that. I was told to take extra precautions in case you were trouble and you were. Hah! I don't prefer using bombs or stuff like that, but if I hadn't, your Stand would've ensured a safe trip to Egypt. As controller of the Tower card; the symbol of calamity and the interruption of journeys, I couldn't let that happen!"

"Bombs?!"

"You will never reach Lord Dio! Even if you survive the crash, you're ten thousand kilometers from Egypt! Those who swore loyalty to Lord Dio will hunt you every hour of every day! There are Stands in this world beyond your wildest imaginations! Lord Dio is the master of Stands! Lord Dio has the power to reign over all of them! You'll never reach him! You bastards will never reach Egypt!"

With a gurgle, the man fell over backwards, blood pooling from his body. He was finally dead this time. The stewardesses cringed at the sight but didn't cry out.

"You're well trained," Jotaro complimented them. "If you had screamed, it would have pissed me off. Ben, can you still make this thing fly?"

"I'll try," Ben said. "I mean, I could have use Ultimate Upgrade. That should be enough to fix the…" Another explosion went off and the plane seemed to be falling faster. "What?! One of the engines blew up! Another bomb?!"

"What?!" A passenger cried, sitting up. "Bomb?!"

One by one the passengers began stirring from their slumber, finally becoming aware of what had been taking place during their sleep.

"One of the engines blew up!"

"What? Aaaah! What is that writing on the wall?!"

"Massacre?! Is that…is that blood?"

"Oh my god, those men are dead! They have holes in the back of their heads and their tongues are gone!"

"There's an old man with his tongue cut in two! All that blood! What the hell is going on?!"

"This is bad," Avdol said as he began to sweat. "If the passengers start panicking, they may do something foolish."

"Even though we could easily handle them with our Stands, they are innocent people," Kakyoin added.

"Good grief," Jotaro sighed as he adjusted his cap. "Ben, get your Stand to make an emergency landing."

"You sure, Jotaro?"

"All these people freaking out will just complicate things. Let's get them to safety and figure out what to do afterwards."

"Got it."

"I have a request," Jotaro said to the stewardesses. "We're going to make an emergency landing near the water. Get the passengers in life jackets and buckle them in."

"G-got it," The brunette stewardess replied as she and her coworker hurried to their task.

"Sheesh, this takes me back to when I flew in propeller planes," Joseph said, scratching his chin.

"Propeller?" Kakyoin asked. "From those stories you were telling Ben earlier?"

"This will be the third plane crash I've been in. Have you ever heard of someone being in three plane crashes, let alone surviving all of them?" Joseph asked, much to the amazement of his fellow Stand Users.

"I can't say anything about planes but I've been in plenty of spaceships crashes," Ben admitted, causing Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Avdol to turn their heads.

"Never again," Jotaro declared. "I am never flying with you two again."

"Hey, there are perfectly good explanations for those crashes!"

 **To Be Continued.**

 _Hello again. It's been awhile hasn't it? Well, welcome to the next chapter of JoJo's Alien Adventure. So yeah, after shooting off ideas with Animeguy1101, I decided to just make this a full on series instead of a one-shot collection. That being said, I wish I had decided to just make it a full series from the start, that way I wouldn't have rushed revealing Emerald Ace's powers._

 _So yeah, to recap, this is going to follow Ben's adventures through the JoJo timeline of Parts 3 through 6. Also, for anyone who was curious, in this story JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Ben 10 take place in the same universe so Ben didn't get sent to another universe's past. I know some people realized this works great for Mikitaka Hazekura, a shapeshifter from part 4 who claims to be an alien because it gives him more credibility._

 _I don't think anyone apart from my collaborators discussed pairings with me but here are a couple of the possible love interests for Ben. (I know the story doesn't need a pairing but I just like fictional romances)_

 _Mariah Carey: This one is a very loose idea. Mariah is from Part 3, one of Dio's followers. She has a fondness for older men but Ben may find a way to win her over. She is a reference of sorts to how I paired Ben with dark skinned women in the past._

 _Trish Una: A major character from Part 5, Vento Aureo/Golden Wind. She is a bit of a spoiled brat but this probably comes from dealing with gangsters. Ben being the undoubtedly Token Good Teammate and his heroic personality has the biggest chance of winning her heart._

 _Jolyne Cujoh: Jotaro's daughter from Part 6. My personal favorite as she's a gorgeous badass with a pretty awesome Stand. The idea being that Ben, now back in his own time, went to help Jolyne at Jotaro's request. At first she doesn't want anything to do with him since he's a friend of her distant father but spending time together she realizes Ben's a good person and they fall for each other, though Ben finds it awkward due to his friendship with Jotaro. Plus, I'd rather Jolyne be paired with a decent guy like Ben compared to her canon (sort of) love interest, the creepy Narciso Anasui._

 _Of course, I might decide not to have a pairing in the story. Everything is up in the air right now._

 _Due to how long this story is going to be, any ideas for the upcoming parts are always welcomed. Hope you guys will enjoy._

 _Next time: The group arrives in Hong Kong where Avdol faces off against another of Dio's followers. It's flame versus sword in the next chapter of JoJo's Alien Adventure. See ya then!_


	3. Silver Chariot

**Disclaimer: Ben 10 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure do not belong to me.**

 _Appreciate your editing Vandenbz._

 **On the plane ride to Egypt, the heroes were attacked by the mass murdering Stand: Tower of Gray. Although fatally wounded by Kakyoin and Hierophant Green, the user had already killed the pilots and destroyed the autopilot. Emerald Ace merged with the plane as Upgrade but failsafe explosives damaged it further. Before dying, the user revealed that more of Dio's followers would hunt them down if they managed to survive. When the passengers noticed what was happening and began to panic, Jotaro had Ben pull an emergency landing.**

 **Stardust Crusaders Part Three: Silver Chariot**

Thanks to Emerald Ace, the plane managed to roughly land thirty five kilometers off the coast of Hong Kong, which Ben and company had been forced to leave in order to avoid further danger to the passengers. Currently, Ben, Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Avdol waited across the street as Joseph conversed with someone over the phone.

"What a trip," Ben said as he leaned against the window of the food store they were standing next to. "I don't want to jinx us but something tells me that this is how it's going to be all the way to Egypt."

"That man did say Dio's followers would be after us," Avdol said grimly, looking over his shoulder. "Who's to say one of them isn't already in Hong Kong?"

"Hey, big guy!" The store vendor said to Jotaro. "Are you fellas tourists? Wanna try my rice porridge? Since you're in Hong Kong, you just have to try dim sum or rice porridge!" He held up a drink. "We have hot cola too."

"Rice porridge? Not bad," Kakyoin turned to Jotaro. "Did you know, Jotaro? Unlike in Japan, rice porridge is a staple food here." He turned back to the vendor. "I'll have the regional style, with pork and a century egg."

"Sure thing!" The vendor beamed.

"I'll have…" Avdol started to order.

"Hey!" Joseph called as he made his way over from the phone booth. "Why are you guys getting food already? We need to pay a visit to my friend's shop."

"You sure look dandy," the vendor said to him as he held the drink up again. "Would you like Hong Kong's own hot cola?"

Joseph was outraged. "Hot?! Everyone knows you only serve cola cold!"

"No offense, Mr. Joestar, but are you going to complain about every cultural difference we come across?" Ben asked, remembering Joseph's complaints back in Japan.

Jotaro decided to steer the conversation into safer waters. "Gramps, who was that on the phone?"

Joseph immediately calmed down. "Oh, I'll explain everything once we get there." He became serious. "We need to work out a plan that'll get us to Egypt as quickly and safely as possible."

Kakyoin cupped his chin. "A plan?"

"Mr. Joestar, we cannot allow any more innocent people to get hurt," Avdol said. "Although the quickest route would be by plane…"

. . .

"Flying to Egypt is simply no longer a possibility," Joseph said sadly. Rather than get food at the small shop, he had taken the others to a nearby restaurant. They were all gathered at the table, menus and drinks having been served to them, and now discussing their plan to get to Egypt. "Although Ben's abilities would be helpful, if we encountered another Stand user like the one on our last flight, more innocent people will be put in harm's way. It seems our best options would be by land or by sea."

"However," Avdol said. "If we fail to find Dio within fifty days…" Everyone fell silent.

"If we had chosen another plane, we'd be in Cairo by now," Kakyoin pointed out.

"If we had the Rustbucket, we could fly to Egypt on our own," Ben said wishfully. Noticing the extremely confused looks everyone was giving him, Ben quickly clarified. "The Rustbucket was the nickname we had for this ship we used to travel to different places and planets. It was loaded with all kinds of tech that would have made sure we got to Egypt smoothly."

"Maybe so," Joseph said gravely before confusing everyone by smiling. "But now isn't the time to get upset over it. One hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a story in which a man traveled around the world, a total of forty thousand kilometers, in eighty days. That was in the age of trains and steamboats. Even without a plane, we can definitely travel the ten thousand kilometers to Egypt within fifty days. As for the route…" He pulled a map out of his jacket and unfolded it across the table. Joseph put his finger beneath Hong Kong. "We'll head to Cairo by sea. We'll charter a suitably-sized boat; go around the Malay Peninsula, and cross the Indian Ocean. It will be the Silk Road of the sea."

Avdol nodded. "I also believe this is best. If we travel by land, the borders will be a nuisance, and would involve crossing both the desert and the Himalayas. Any trouble will cost us valuable time. It is too dangerous."

"I've never been to any of the places along either route so I have no preferences," Kakyoin said. "I'll leave it up to you two."

Jotaro nodded. "I agree."

"Sounds good to me, I'm just worried about one of Dio's men attacking us at sea," Ben said.

"That's why I'm making sure it's just us and the crew on the boat," Joseph said as he folded up the map. "The Stand Users Dio will send after us are our greatest danger. We'll have to be careful not to get spotted on our way to Egypt."

Kakyoin then tilted the lid of the teapot. "This is a sign to let them know that we want more tea," he explained. "If you do this in Hong Kong, they bring you more tea." Sure enough, a waitress came by and poured tea into Kakyoin's cup. "Also, when they pour tea into your cup," He tapped the table twice. "This means "thank you"." He smiled at the waitress, who returned it before leaving.

"Excuse me, do you have a moment?" A man with his face obscured by a menu walked towards their table. "I'm a tourist from France, you see. I'm having a hard time understanding the menu. Could you help me out?" He closed the menu. Like the other passerby, he was a fairly muscular man with receding silver hair that rose above his head into a flattop. He wore earrings that resembled halves of a broken heart, a tube top with one strap over his left shoulder and trousers with a pouch at the side.

"Talk about annoying. Fuck off." Jotaro told him coldly, much to the man's confusion and hurt.

Ben frowned. One the one hand, it was possible this guy was an enemy Stand User but at the same time, Jotaro might have been needlessly rude to an innocent man. Then Ben thought about how Jotaro usually acted with people. Joseph on the other hand smiled.

"Come on, Jotaro, it's fine." He held his hand out to the man, who handed the menu to him. "I've been to Hong Kong lots of times. I should be able to read the menu." He waved to an empty chair. "Why don't you join us?

Ben looked at him. "Should?"

Joseph ignored him as he opened the menu. "So, what did you want to order? Food with shrimp, duck, shark fin, and mushroom?" He hailed a waiter who happily came over. "I'll have this, this, this. And this too." He pointed at different spots on the menu, the waiter eagerly writing each order down. "Oh and this!"

Ben had a bad feeling that Joseph really had no idea what the menu said and was pointing at random.

. . .

"Either I was right or he has the same tastes as my grandpa," Ben muttered when their orders arrived: rice porridge, roasted frogs, stewed fish, and a clam dish. But something seemed off about them.

"This is all wrong," Kakyoin noted.

"This figures," Jotaro said under his breath.

The only one excited was their new tourist companion, who was eyeing the fried frogs.

Joseph laughed. "Well, no worries. It's on me. It doesn't matter what you order, it's all good!" He grabbed a bowl. "Now let's eat!"

Hesitantly, everyone else followed his lead. Kakyoin ate a clam while Avdol ate part of the fish. Ben decided to stick with the rice porridge as it was the only thing he was comfortable eating, and could eat without trying to figure out how to use chopsticks. As everyone took a bite out of their dishes, they were surprised by the surprisingly good taste.

"See?" Joseph grinned. "It's good huh?"

"Well they certainly took long enough making it," the Frenchman said. "Look at these carrots. They're shaped like stars." He picked up one of the star-shaped carrots with his chopsticks as he seemed to be reminiscing. "It reminds me of something…"

At once everyone stopped eating, all eyes on the Frenchman as he held the odd carrot in his hand. "That's right. Someone I know has a mark like this on their shoulder."

"You've got to be kidding me," Ben whispered.

"You…" Kakyoin said. "Are you another…"

Smirking, the man put the star on his neck. The porridge bowl started bubbling when a saber being held by an armored hand shot out.

"Mr. Joestar, look out!" Avdol yelled.

The gauntleted hand spun the sword expertly before swinging it down at Joseph.

"It's a Stand!" Joseph cried as he held out his prosthetic hand to try blocking the blade.

Ben made a face. "I ate from that bowl."

Everyone leaped back from the table as Avdol turned it over. "Magician's Red!" The birdlike Stand appeared and shot a torrent of flame out of its mouth at the enemy Stand. The sword countered by spinning at the flames, causing them to gather around the blade. "What?!"

The Stand fully revealed itself: A knight-like Stand that flicked its sword and sent the flames of Magician's Red at the overturned table. When the flames connected, they formed into flaming numbers like a clock, a hand in-between the eight and nine. Its handiwork complete, the knight struck a fencing pose.

"His sword is so fast!" Kakyoin exclaimed.

"The Forever Knights have nothing on this guy," Ben added.

"My Stand represents the Chariot card: Silver Chariot!" The Frenchman said. "Mohammed Avdol, it appears that you wish to die first! I've made a fire clock on that table. I'll kill you before the clock strikes twelve!"

"Your sword is quite fast," Avdol said. "It is impressive, but do you truly believe you can defeat me before the flame on the table strikes twelve? Does not that strike you as conceited…um…"

"Polnareff, but allow me to introduce myself fully," the man said. "Jean Pierre Polnareff!"

"Merci beaucop, I appreciate your formality. However," Avdol pointed at the table. Flames exploded from beneath it, launching said furniture into the air a rocket. It crashed back to the floor and was completely engulfed by the flames. "Monsieur Polnareff, do not be foolish and think my flames will burn as they would in nature. My Stand is named Magician's Red for its ability to freely control flames."

Silver Chariot stabbed its sword into the ground. "They say the world was once completely engulfed in flames. Your Magician's Red is the master of these flames that signify the beginning of all things. However…you dare call me conceited?! Do you think my swordsmanship is nothing more than mere conceit?!" Polnareff tossed five coins up in the air amidst some of the still falling flames. In one strike, Silver Chariot skewered all five coins like a shish-kebab.

"He pierced all five coins in a single stab!" Joseph exclaimed.

"No, look closer." Jotaro said.

"Huh?" Ben looked. His eyes widened when he noticed what was between the coins.

"I see," Avdol said anxiously. "The flame is caught between each coin."

Polnareff chuckled. "I'm glad you understand what this means for you. I'm not conceited at all. My Stand can sever fire! It can cut the air in half, creating a gap of nothingness between it. Simply put, your Magician's Red is no match for my Silver Chariot."

Ben frowned. "That's just great. Tower of Gray was bad enough but Silver Chariot's in a whole other league."

Silver Chariot swung its blade again, sending the coins falling to the ground before it disappeared. Everyone realized Polnareff was no longer there but instead standing at the door.

Avdol blinked. "When did he…?"

Polnareff looked over his shoulder. "My Stand represents the Chariot card, which suggests conquest and victory. I could end things right there in this cramped room but…Avdol, your flame is much stronger out in the open, is it not? It's only right that my Stand defeats you under the fairest of circumstances: a true victory!" He walked out of the restaurant.

Ben crossed his arms. "Huh. Didn't think anyone who followed Dio would believe in fighting fair."

. . .

"What is this?!" Joseph asked at the place that Polnareff had led them to: a location filled with all sorts of paintings and animal statues, namely tigers.

"Tiger Balm Garden," Kakyoin informed him.

"Why did he bring us here?" Ben asked as he looked around the garden.

"There seems to be no one else here besides us," Jotaro said.

"I have a prediction for you," Polnareff said as he led them to a wide open space in the garden. "First off, Avdol, you…" Silver Chariot appeared beside him. "Will be destroyed by the power of your own Stand!"

"He might believe in fair play but he's still pretty full of himself," Ben commented.

Jotaro looked at his ally. "Avdol…"

"Jotaro, Ben, you need not interfere," the fortuneteller told them. "With all this open space, I can control my Stand freely." Magician's Red appeared in a spurt of fire.

"Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!" Polnareff shouted, Silver Chariot swung its sword at Magician's Red, who dodged the blow. Silver Chariot swung and stabbed but Magician's Red managed to continuously dodge its blade. "What's wrong? Is your precious flame too good for me? In that case, it's my turn!" Silver Chariot stabbed rapidly, but Magician's Red leaped back and fired a blast of flame. Silver Chariot struck the fireball, sending it at a nearby statue of an eagle. The statue crumbled and everyone gasped when it became an exact replica of Magician's Red.

"That bastard! He's mocking us!" Joseph said angrily. "He carved the statue to look just like Magician's Red!"

"Ever considered getting a job as a sculptor instead?" Ben asked Polnareff.

"This isn't the time for jokes!" Joseph snapped at him.

"It is a nice piece isn't it?" Polnareff said. "You know, Magician's Red would make a nice decoration for the garden." His face hardened, Avdol raised a hand. Polnareff tensed. "It's coming. Are you going to show me your true power? Fantastic. Show me what you got!"

"Hey, we need to hide. Avdol is about to use that move." Joseph started running away from the two combatants.

"What move?" Ben asked, following Joseph's lead.

"Crossfire Hurricane!" Magician's Red launched a blast of fire in the shape of a large, Egyptian Ankh at its opponent.

"Is that all you got?!" Polnareff asked as Silver Chariot raised its sword. "My sword can create a gap of nothingness when I slice the air, which I'll use to cut your flame in half!" True to his word, Silver Chariot slashed the Ankh, sending the flames right back at Avdol and Magician's Red.

"Avdol!" Joseph cried as his friend was set ablaze by his own flames. "His flames are so strong, he's burning himself!"

Avdol fell to the ground. Polnareff smiled. "As I predicted: you're dying by your own flames!"

"Hang on!" Ben called, ready to transform either himself or Emerald Ace into Heatblast but Avdol glared at Polnareff, Magician's Red flying at him.

"Oh, my oh my, oh my, oh my. You still have the gall to come after me? How unsightly," Polnareff taunted. Silver Chariot slashed Magician's Red, only for Polnareff to realize something was wrong as the other Stand seemed to fall apart. "What was that?" Suddenly Silver Chariot was lit aflame, Polnareff held up his hands, which were showing signs of burns. "Why are there flames coming from where I severed him?"

"That wasn't the Stand," Joseph answered. "That was the statue."

Polnareff's eyes widened as Avdol got to his feet.

"Your eyes were obscured by the flames," He explained as the real Magician's Red stood behind him. "Your Silver Chariot only sliced through the statue it carved earlier." Polnareff flinched. "I told you I was able to freely control my flame. The flames you sent back at it melted its joints and allowed it to move. Meaning you were the one to be defeated by the power of your Stand! And now, we shall finish this! Crossfire Hurricane!"

Magician's Red shot the flaming Ankh again, this time slamming it into Polnareff and Silver Chariot, knocking them both back. Avdol put a finger to his nose. "If you wanted to fight a fortuneteller with predictions, you were ten years too early."

"What a terrifying power," Joseph said as Polnareff fell to the ground. "His Stand must have melted after taking that attack. It's over!"

"Those are nasty burns," Jotaro said. "He's dead. Or close to it if he's lucky. Well, maybe not lucky."

"Well either way, he's not going anywhere fast," Kakyoin said as he began descending the stairs out of the garden. "His Stand is defeated, it's done fighting."

"We should get him to a hospital," Ben said, looking at Polnareff's slightly smoking body.

"Ben…" Kakyoin began.

"Look, I get this guy works for Dio and all but he was willing to make things fair," Ben said firmly. "Let's get him treated and call it even."

"So he can report to Dio about what we're doing?" Kakyoin challenged.

"I don't think he will," Ben said as he went over to check on Polnareff. "This guy has a sense of honor, way different from that Tower of Gray guy. Who knows, maybe he'll let us get a head start before he notifies Dio."

"Personally I'd like for us to simply continue on our way to Egypt," Avdol said, putting his arms in his sleeves. "However…"

Whatever he was about to say was cut short at a rattling noise coming from Polnareff's position. Ben dove for cover as Silver Chariot seemed to explode, pieces of armor flying everywhere. Polnareff himself was suddenly launched into the air.

Kakyoin gawked. "He flew up in the air while lying down?!"

Polnareff's eyes shot open and he began clapping. "Oh bravo! Bravo!"

"He's not even injured!" Kakyoin noticed.

"But how is he floating up there like that?" Jotaro asked, seeing how Polnareff was just floating in the air.

Crossing his arms, Polnareff smiled. "Take a look with your inner eye."

Avdol started to sweat when he saw that something was actually holding Polnareff up. "That's…"

Polnareff was flung into the air, flipped, and landed back on his feet. Silver Chariot now stood beside him, resembling a cross between a robot and a skeleton. "Yeah, you got it! Silver Chariot with its armor shed." Avdol gasped. "You seem surprised. It would be dishonorable of me to defeat you before I explained my previous move. Besides, one of you was willing to have me treated despite instigating this battle. It's only fair that I return the generosity extended to me. Will you allow me the honor of explaining it?"

"Very well," Avdol relented as he prepared to resume the fight, Ben quickly stepping aside. "Let us hear your explanation."

"My Stand didn't break apart and disappear, Silver Chariot was wearing armor. All it did was take it off. Only some of the armor was burned by your flames. That's why I'm mostly unharmed. And with its armor gone, it's much faster. Did you see my Stand lift me up? Indeed, that's just how fast it is now."

"That speed," Ben said. "It was already fast with that armor and now it's even gotten faster than that?"

Avdol crossed his arms. "I see. Because of its heavy armor, it was forced to take the brunt of my Crossfire Hurricane." He took a fighting stance. "However, that means it's vulnerable now! Since it lacks proper protection, if I were to hit it again, it would not survive!"

Polnareff crossed his arms with a sigh. "Oui, precisely. But that's impossible!"

"Impossible?" Avdol repeated. "We'll see about that."

"I'm gonna show you something that'll blow your socks off," Polnareff said evenly.

"Oh?" Avdol taunted. "Please do." Seven Silver Chariots floated behind Polnareff. "What?!"

Ben grit his teeth. "You gotta be kidding. It can duplicate too!"

"I-impossible," Kakyoin stuttered. "Stand users can only have one Stand."

"And what if that Stand's _ability_ is copying itself?" Ben asked. Kakyoin gulped at the implications.

Polnareff chuckled at everyone's stunned reactions. "It appears I have succeeded. These are afterimages. These afterimages of my Stand will confuse not just your sight, but all of your senses. You don't have a chance of keeping up with it. How do you like my swordsmanship now?!" All seven Silver Chariots charged at Magician's Red. Unable to tell which was the real one, the fire-wielding Stand struggled to evade, occasionally getting slashed.

"Red Bind!" Magician's Red sent a tendril of fire at the Silver Chariots, the afterimages dispersing whenever they came in contact with the flames. But just as it seemed the afterimages were cleared, Silver Chariot appeared above Polnareff, all seven afterimages restored. Polnareff confidently put his hands on his hips. "As I was saying, you don't have a chance of keeping up with it. Your flames will only hit the afterimages."

Undeterred by this, Avdol charged forward, Magician's Red blasting at the Silver Chariots.

"Striking at random now?" Polnareff asked. "You're getting a bit desperate, Avdol."

"All he's accomplishing is wasting his energy," Kakyoin said, seeing the afterimages constantly reappear no matter how many times Avdol got rid of them.

"I should step in," Ben said. "XLR8 can match him in speed and I'd like to see his swords try and cut through Diamondhead."

"Don't, Ben!" Avdol shouted even as Magician's Red struggled against the onslaught of Silver Chariots. "This man has gone out of his way to make this a fair fight. I shall respect his wishes. Crossfire Hurricane!" Magician's Red blasted another Silver Chariot, forming a hole in the ground, but there was nothing there after the smoke cleared.

Polnareff wagged his finger. "Non, non, non, non. That was an afterimage. That attack will never work against my Stand! Come on, come on, come on!"

The Silver Chariots attacked again, only this time they were stabbing at Avdol himself. He was swiftly knocked back, bleeding profusely.

"Avdol!" Joseph cried.

Avdol clutched his arm. "Such precision, he has…an impressively well trained Stand!"

"I trained ten years for personal reasons," Polnareff said proudly. "Now, give me your best shot. My next move will finish you."

"In the name of chivalry, you insist upon explaining your attacks," Avdol said as he stood up straight. "That is quite honorable. Therefore, I shall reveal a secret before beginning my next attack. I have several variations to my Crossfire Hurricane. It is an Ankh-shaped flame but it doesn't need to stay whole. I am capable of separating it to let the pieces fly individually."

A roaring circle of fire formed around Avdol. "Crossfire Hurricane Special! Try to dodge this!" Magician's Red made the fire form into multiple Ankhs and sent them soaring at Polnareff.

"It's no use, Avdol!" Polnareff said as the Silver Chariots surrounded him.

Joseph pointed. "They formed a circle!"

"There's no opening!" Kakyoin exclaimed.

"Naïve! Naïve, naïve, naïve, naïve! Naïve!" Polnareff shouted as he sent the Silver Chariots at the incoming Ankhs. "I'll use your power against you again. Sever it! Send it back to him!"

Just as the first Silver Chariot was about to strike, the ground beneath Polnareff burst open. "What?!" Polnareff cried as he was blasted to the ground once more, his body in flames as the Silver Chariots were scattered by the massive Ankh that had emerged.

As the flames began dying, Avdol knelt down to next to the smoldering hole. "That's…the hole in the ground he made earlier." Joseph gasped. "That's it! He used the first flame to create a tunnel! Then he sent Crossfire Hurricane through it!"

"That way, instead of trying to hit Silver Chariot, he'd hit Polnareff directly!" Ben put it all together.

"I told you," Avdol said. "My flames can be separated to fly independently."

Polnareff, his body still on fire, tried to push himself up off the ground, but his arm gave out and he fell. Avdol produced a dagger and tossed it in front of Polnareff. "Burning to death is a rather painful way to die. Use that dagger to end your life."

Ben rounded on him. "What?! Avdol, you can't be serious! Earlier you were fine with getting him treated, now you're telling him to either burn to death or kill himself?!"

Instead of answering him, Avdol continued walking back toward the entrance, his callous attitude making Ben angry. He looked at Polnareff, seeing him raise the dagger as if to throw it at Avdol, only to change his mind. He brought the dagger under his chin but once again stopped. He let himself collapse again. "I was conceited." Polnareff said weakly. "I didn't think his flames were a match against my swordsmanship. I'll die honorably by burning to death. Since he was able to defeat me, I'll accept my fate out of respect. Ending my own life would be dishonorable."

"No!" Ben shouted. He activated the Ultimatrix and was about to transform into Heatblast when Avdol snapped his fingers, the flames disappearing.

"I see now that you are truly a chivalrous man," He said as he approached Polnareff. "Even now, you have chosen not to attack me with the dagger while my back was turned." He knelt down and picked Polnareff up. "You have remained honorable despite your orders from Dio. You do not deserve to die. Something must be behind this." He brushed some of Polnareff's hair aside, revealing a fleshbud. "Jojo!"

"Got it," Jotaro said as he summoned Star Platinum.

Joseph flinched away. "Those tentacles are nasty."

"Well, at least that explains why a fair guy like him would follow Dio." Ben said as Star Platinum began removing the flesh bud, its tentacles flailing.

Joseph squirmed. "Jotaro, hurry up! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"

"Put a sock in it, Gramps," Jotaro retorted. Star Platinum pulled the flesh bud out and held it up to the Sun, causing it to disintegrate into dust.

"Good" Joseph said as he helped Polnareff up. "Now that the flesh bud is gone, we can be buddies. Ba dum tsh!" He chuckled at the others.

"Kakyoin, Ben," Jotaro said. "Doesn't it piss you off when idiots make shitty puns?" Kakyoin chuckled. Ben said nothing, remembering the puns he'd occasionally make.

. . .

The next day, the group made their way across the docks of Hong Kong.

"The boat we chartered from the Speedwagon Foundation yesterday should be at the harbor by now," Joseph informed the others. A figure stepped in front of them, bringing their company to a halt.

"What is it?" Avdol asked. "Do you need something else…Polnareff?"

"I didn't get to thank you for freeing me from Dio's grasp yet," Polnareff, who was clutching a drawstring bag, said.

"For that, you must thank Jojo," Avdol told him, looking at said teen.

"Don't bother," Jotaro said bluntly.

"It appears no one will accept your thanks," Avdol said in amusement.

"That's fine," Polnareff conceded. "I'm not the forceful type. But one more thing. Monsieur Joestar, I have a bizarre question to ask you."

Joseph stroked his beard. "A bizarre question?"

"Pardon my curiosity, but I noticed how you refused to remove your gloves while eating earlier. Your left hand wouldn't happen to be the same as your right one would it?"

"Huh? My left hand, a right one?" Joseph held both his hands up. "That really is a bizarre question. What are you getting at?"

Polnareff's face was set and there was a cold look in his eyes. "I'm looking for the man who murdered my younger sister." Everyone stared at Polnareff. "I've never seen his face, but I know he has two right hands."

Calmly, Joseph removed his left glove, showing his prosthetic. "I lost my hand in battle fifty years ago."

Polnareff lowered his head. "Pardon my rudeness. I'm sorry."

"Would you tell us what happened?" Joseph asked gently.

Polnareff turned around, staring out to sea. "It was three years ago," He said quietly. "My younger sister and her classmate were coming home from school on that rainy day. On the side of the road, a man stood with his back to them. Strangely, despite the heavy downpour, the rain was falling around him in a dome-like shape, as if he were surrounded by an invisible shield. Suddenly, her classmate's chest was sliced open like a blade had cut her. And then…my sister was raped, and then killed. That was all the man wanted from her."

Ben felt as if his body had been submerged in cold water.

"Miraculously, her friend somehow survived," Polnareff continued. "She hadn't seen his face, but she saw he had two right hands. Nobody believed what she said, except for me! I believed her since the man possessed a secret power similar to mine!"

"That man must've been a Stand user," Joseph said.

Polnareff spun around, striking a pose. "I swore! I swore he would atone for my sister's death so that she could finally rest in peace! I'll use my Stand to get revenge!"

Ben flinched, having a pretty good idea what kind of revenge Polnareff had in mind.

"And then a year ago, I met Dio," Polnareff said "He was standing next to a crystal ball, purple vines coming out of his hand. The crystal showed a man with two right hands. Dio claimed it was a vision from me. He said that he would help me find the man who killed my sister, only to put that flesh bud inside my head. Then he ordered me to kill you guys. I really believed that's what I needed to do."

"Although the flesh buds are partially to blame, Dio's power of manipulation is terrifying." Avdol said.

"Yeah, but based on what you just said…" Kakyoin cupped his chin. "It sounds like Dio found the man with two right hands and they've now joined forces."

"I've decided to go to Egypt with you guys," Polnareff stated. "If I find Dio, I'll find the man who took my sister's life!"

"Is that okay?" Kakyoin asked the others.

"I have no objections," Avdol replied.

Joseph shrugged. "You're just going to follow us either way."

Despite his concerns about Polnareff's desire for revenge, Ben also agreed. "The more allies we get, the better our chances against Dio."

* * *

 **Jean Pierre Polnareff**

 **Stand Name: Silver Chariot!**

 **Power: Fast and precise swordsmanship!**

* * *

Polnareff gave them a two-finger salute. "You can count on me!"

Jotaro sighed. "Good grie…"

"Excuse me!" Two attractive girls ran up to Jotaro, one holding a camera. "Can you snap a quick picture of us?"

"Pretty please?" The other girl begged.

"We want it facing the ocean!" The camera girl said.

Jotaro grit his teeth in frustration. "Shut the hell up! And fuck off!"

"Jotaro!" Ben said, appalled. Sure the girls were being intrusive but…Ben sighed. Jotaro didn't pull any punches, whether it was in a fight or having a conversation. Still, he was a bit jealous. Girls didn't fawn over him until he had become famous while girls were falling for Jotaro and Kakyoin left and right. He looked at everyone, feeling a little insecure that he was the least muscular person in the group. Ben decided that the first chance he got; he would start working out.

"Now, now, now," Polnareff said charmingly. "I'll take your picture. Come, come." He started guiding them to the edge of the docks. "With your banging legs, we need a full body shot."

"…So he's one of those kind of guys," Ben said with a deadpan expression as Polnareff took pictures of the girls who were happy despite not getting their pictures taken by Jotaro. Ben made a vow that he would work out _hard_.

"That's good!" Polnareff said. "One more time! Tres bien! Just like this button I want to push, push, push, my way into your heart."

"Talk about a mood swing," Kakyoin said dryly.

"He's the kind of guy who keeps his brain in his pants," Joseph said.

"But, his Stand is pretty useful," Ben admitted. "I'm glad he's on our side now."

"Good grief," Jotaro muttered.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Next time: The heroes take a ship to reach Egypt but problems arise when a stowaway is found and a servant of Dio is possibly amongst them. How will the gang smoke their potential assassin out? Find out on JoJo's Alien Adventures!**


	4. Dark Blue Moon

**Disclaimer: Ben 10 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure do not belong to me.**

 _Thank you, Vandenbz, for your proofreading._

 **After landing in Hong Kong, the heroes were confronted by another of Dio's followers, Jean Pierre Polnareff, honorable user of the swordsman Stand: Silver Chariot. Although a powerful opponent, he was defeated by Avdol, who revealed that, like Kakyoin, Polnareff was infected with a flesh bud. As the group prepared to leave, they were approached by Polnareff, who wished to join them on their quest; as he believed his sister's murderer, another Stand user, was serving under Dio.**

 **Stardust Crusaders Part Four: Dark Blue Moon**

"I've given some thought regarding your Stand," Avdol said.

Ben shrugged. "I'm still in the dark about them so I'll try anything right now."

Shortly after Polnareff joined their group, the group found themselves on a sailboat filled with able-bodied sailors courtesy of the Speedwagon Foundation. Joseph assured them that everything should be smooth sailing, pun probably intended, but Ben wasn't as enthusiastic. He just knew that another Stand user was going to attack them and wouldn't be surprised if they had some kind of sea monster Stand like a Kraken or a giant shark.

"One theory is the circumstances for how you acquired your Stand," Avdol said. "After all, you gained it through the work of another. Who's to say that doing so made your Stand sporadic? My other theory, which I believe is more likely, is that Emerald Ace is not just the embodiment of your fighting spirit but also your heroic nature. Aside from your subconscious desires, your Stand always acted whenever someone was in need. Jotaro, Kakyoin, yourself, everyone on the plane, they were in need of help. Your Stand knew that and immediately sprang into action." He chuckled. "Though if the Stand is a reflection of yourself; then it also hints at impulsive and reckless behavior."

Ben crossed his arms, knowing that Kevin and Gwen would get a kick out of that deduction if they were here. "But if that's the case, how do I control Emerald Ace? I know you said I need to treat my Stand as an extension of myself but how exactly do I do that?"

"How did you learn to control the powers of your aliens?" Avdol asked.

Ben scratched his neck. "Uh…winging it?"

Avdol chuckled again. "I see. How about you try this? Think about what you want your Stand to do; visualize it in your mind, and your Stand will follow."

"Is it really that simple?" Ben couldn't help asking, especially since if it were, Holly wouldn't be in such dire straits.

"It's all about your spirit and willpower, Ben," Avdol said. "The Stand does not control you. You control the Stand."

Ben nodded. "I control the Stand." He looked over the railing and out to sea. The view was serene and calming. "I control the Stand. I control Emerald Ace. It's a part of me. I'm in control."

Avdol patted Ben's shoulder with a reassuring smile. "I believe you will control it, Ben. You have already accomplished so many incredible things in your life and you're not even an adult yet. If anyone has what it takes to control their Stand, it's you."

Ben smiled. "Thanks, Avdol."

. . .

"To get from Hong Kong to Singapore, we'll be on the water for three days," Joseph said later. "Well, let's just relax and keep our spirits up. But seriously guys…can't you do something about those school uniforms? Are you going to stay dressed like that the entire time? Aren't you hot?"

Ben, who had been staring out to sea, turned. Joseph was pointing at Jotaro and Kakyoin, who were both lounging in sun chairs; Jotaro with his arms behind his head and his eyes closed, while Kakyoin read a book. Both were still wearing their regular clothes compared to Joseph, who was now sporting a red and white striped shirt. Ben had simply taken off his jacket and hung it over his shoulder.

"Both of us are students," Kakyoin replied. "And students should dress as students. Though we might be pushing it…"

Joseph snorted. "Japanese students are so uptight…"

"My school didn't have a required uniform but I think Gwen's might have," Ben said. "Course she went to some prep school so she could get into college early…"

"Gwen?" Polnareff said with interest. "Is she your girlfriend?"

Ben blanched. "Dude, she's my cousin."

Polnareff flinched. "My apologies. I shouldn't have made assumptions. But, you have a female cousin?"

"Watch it, Polnareff, she's already got a boyfriend. Besides she's not even eighteen yet." Man, this guy was hopeless when it came to women.

Polnareff became squeamish. "Again, my apologies. Though it's nice to know she has a boyfriend. He must be a very laid back person unlike these two…" He pointed to the two other teenagers of their group. "Girls will never fall for uptight guys like that."

"Yeah, right," Ben muttered, thinking back to the stewardesses and those girls from Hong Kong.

"Let go! Let go of me, you big lug!" A child's voice cried out. A sailor was struggling with a young, dark skinned boy wearing overalls and a brown cap. "Damn it, let me go!"

"Shut the hell up!" The sailor shouted as he tried to stop the kid from squirming.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Joseph called over. "I thought we agreed that there'd be no passengers on this boat."

"Sorry about that but this is a stowaway," the sailor explained as the boy kicked wildly. "This brat was hiding in the lower storage area."

"A stowaway?" Joseph said in bewilderment.

"Come on and fight me!" The boy demanded, still flailing. "I'll break your balls!"

"And maybe I'll turn you over to the Naval Police!" the sailor yelled, yanking the boy by his collar.

"What?! The police?!" The boy managed to break away from the sailor. "P-please let me go! I just want to see my dad in Singapore. I'll do anything! Work me as hard as you want!"

The sailor pinched the boy's left cheek. "Hmm. What should I do? Should I let you go?" He grabbed the boy's right ear and started pulling it along with his cheek as the boy continued pleading. "Oh, what shall I do?" He let go of the boy's face before flicking his nose. "I ain't gonna let you go! Not a chance! First I'm gonna go get the captain so come with…" The boy lunged forward and bit down on the sailor's arm, causing him to cry out in pain. The boy then ran to the side of the boat and leaped over the railing into the water.

"Whoa, the kid just jumped in!" Polnareff said in amusement and some admiration. "What spunk!"

"Will that kid be able to swim back to the shore from here?" Kakyoin asked worriedly, walking over to the railing.

"I doubt it," Ben said as he put his jacket back on. "Quick, somebody throw a life preserver!"

Jotaro scoffed as the kid broke the surface and started swimming from the boat. "Leave him. The kid must be a confident swimmer to just dive in like that."

Ben was about to object when the sailor cut him off, sweating profusely. "This ain't good! These are notorious shark-infested waters!" This revelation earned gasps from Joseph and Polnareff.

"Okay, forget the life preserver," Ben said. This wasn't how he wanted to test controlling his Stand but he didn't have much of a choice. "Emerald Ace!"

Polnareff gasped as Emerald Ace materialized beside Ben. "Ooooh, so this is what your Stand looks like! You know, he looks kinda like one of those comic book superheroes."

"You have no idea," Ben said as he ran Avdol's words through his head. Visualize what he wanted his Stand to do, and the Stand itself would follow. "Ripjaws!"

Polnareff tilted his head. "Eh? Ripjaws?" He flinched back when Emerald Ace activated its Ultimatrix. "What?!" Emerald Ace scrolled through the selection and slammed down the dial. After the flash, Emerald Ace had been replaced by a creature that looked like a humanoid angular fish. "Eeeeeeh?! Your Stand! Y-your Stand transformed!"

"That's right, you don't know about Ben's Stand," Joseph said. "So, an aquatic alien eh? With all the other ones we've seen, I'm not surprised."

Polnareff gawked. "W-what?! Other ones?! Hold up, what was that about aliens?"

"Talk later!" Ben snapped. "Right now…" He and Ripjaws both dived into the water. The others waited anxiously as Ben and Ripjaws surfaced and swam towards the kid. From the boat, the others saw a dark shape moving under the water.

"Ben, look out! There's a shark near the kid!"

Those words halted the boy in his tracks, slowly turning his head with his eyes widening as a dorsal fin rose from the water. The stowaway was paralyzed as the fin was right in front of him…

Only for Ripjaws to punch the shark under its jaw with so much force that it was launched into the air.

"Chew on someone your own size!" Ben shouted, startling the boy, who hadn't realized Ben was right behind him. "Come on. I'll take you back to the boat. Just grab onto me and you'll be okay."

"O-okay," The boy mumbled, wrapping his arms around Ben's waist, only to scream as the shark was falling back down towards them.

Ben pictured Ripjaws intercepting the attack, which his Stand did, slamming its fist into the shark's jaw before it could hit the water, the force breaking several of the predator's teeth. Ben then imagined Ripjaws tossing the shark away. Immediately Ripjaws grabbed the shark by the tail, swung the dangerous fish over its head and threw it away from the boat. Ben let out a sigh of relief when the shark fell back into the water, hoping it would leave.

"Looks like I got the hang of it. For now anyway," Ben looked at the little boy. "Hey. You alright?"

The boy weakly nodded his head, trembling.

"Hey, it's okay," Ben said gently. "You're safe now. Come on; let's get back to the boat. I'll see if I can get the crew to back off after that."

"T-thank you," The boy said quietly.

Ben smiled. "No problem. It's what heroes do." The two started swimming back to the boat. But behind them, something emerged from the spot where the shark had landed. It was the shark, having been sliced in two, blood pooling from its bifurcated carcass. The others onboard noticed a pair of fins passing between the halves of the shark's body.

"Ben!" Joseph called. "Beneath you! Something's attacking from underwater!"

Ben and Ripjaws spun around, seeing the dead shark and the fins of the new creature before they submerged.

"It's not a shark and it's fast. Get out of there, Ben!"

"Probably another Stand," Ben said to himself. He wasn't going to risk fighting a Stand while an innocent kid was with him so Ben had Ripjaws start pushing him and the boy back to the boat. A life preserver was finally thrown to them.

"Ripjaws seems to be pretty fast but so is whatever is chasing them," Avdol observed as Ben and the boy got closer to the preserver. "Will Ben get back in time?"

"Now that they're in range, I'll make sure of it!" Kakyoin said. "Hierophant Green!"

Kakyoin's Stand appeared and began unwinding its lower body as it launched itself at Ben. Seeing the incoming Stand, Ripjaw reached an arm out, wrapping its other limb around its user and the boy. Hierophant Green grabbed Ripjaws and pulled. Ben and the boy were lifted out of the air just in time for their attacker to shred the preserver to pieces. Everyone tried to catch a glimpse of the assailant but it had already dove back into the water, leaving nothing but the remains of the preserver.

"It disappeared," Polnareff said. "A Stand. It had to be a Stand."

"An aquatic Stand," Avdol said. "Until today, even I had never seen such a thing before."

"Thanks, Kakyoin," Ben said, catching a breath. "That was a pretty close call. Hey, are you alright ki…" he started asking the child but his words caught in his throat. When Hierophant Green had lifted them out of the water, the kid's cap had fallen off, revealing a cascade of thick black hair and a startling revelation. "Y-you're a girl?"

The newly revealed girl fidgeted in place, wringing her hands and trying to avert her eyes from looking at Ben, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Don't be deceived, Ben," Joseph whispered fiercely as the girl continued looking off to the side. "That girl might be the Stand user."

Ben's eyes widened. "Are you sure?" He looked back at the girl. "Her?"

"It's possible that was all an act to lure one of us out into the water and then attack us with her Stand," Kakyoin rationalized.

"If she is the Stand user, should we toss her back into the ocean?" Polnareff suggested.

"Are you crazy?!" Ben hissed at him. "What if she isn't the Stand user? You'd be throwing an innocent little girl to the sharks!"

"I already had the ten people on this boat checked," Joseph said. "This girl is the only one it could be."

"How can we find out if she is?" Ben asked.

"Hey," Avdol said to the girl. "How is Dio doing?"

The girl gave him a look like he was crazy. "Dio? Who the hell is that?"

"For an innocent little girl she certainly has quite the language," Kakyoin couldn't resist saying to Ben.

"Don't act like you don't know, you damn brat!" Polnareff snapped

Ben groaned. Polnareff seemed much more discreet when he had that flesh bud in his head.

The girl fumed. "You damn punks!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a switchblade. "You wanna fight? I'll take you all one on one! Come on, you cowards!"

"Still think she's innocent now?" Jotaro asked Ben.

"…No comment," Ben said as the girl tossed the knife between her hands.

"Are you going to fight?" The girl attempted to goad them. "This demon's blade is telling me it's thirsting for the blood of its three hundred and fortieth victim already."

"On second thought…" Ben said as Kakyoin chuckled at the obvious bravado, which only riled up the girl more.

"W-what's so funny, you stupid grunt?!"

Kakyoin was only further amused. "Grunt? You know, I really don't think it's her."

Joseph was still skeptical. "But…"

"So this girl is our stowaway?"

The girl screamed as a man grabbed her shoulders from behind. A muscular man with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache, dark blue shirt and red scarf, towered over her.

Joseph recognized him. "Captain!"

"I'm pretty strict when it comes to stowaways." The captain easily scooped the girl up. "Even though you're just a girl, if I go easy on you, it will only encourage other stowaways." He twisted her arm, causing her to cry out in pain as her knife fell to the deck. He placed her back down but kept a firm grip on her arm. "We'll just hold you in a room below deck until we reach port." He tightened his grip, causing her to cry out again.

"Hey!" Ben shouted, unaware that Emerald Ace was now standing beside him, its fists raised. He was ready to give the captain a piece of his mind but Avdol grabbed his shoulder.

"Easy, Ben," He told him quietly. "We still don't know for sure if the girl isn't the Stand user."

Ben's fists shook.

"If she's not the user, we'll make sure she's treated well," Kakyoin added. "But we have to be careful. Another enemy is upon us and we can't afford to let our guard down."

Ben took a deep breath to steady himself. They were obviously right but as he looked over at the girl struggling to free herself from the captain's grip, he hated the fact that he wasn't doing something to help her.

"Captain," Joseph spoke up. "I have to ask but did you verify the identities of all ten men on board?"

"Of course, they're all veterans who have served on this vessel for ten years." The captain said as he handed the girl over to some of his men. "I can't say I understand why this has you so worried. By the way…" He walked over to Jotaro, who had smoking a cigarette this entire time, and snatched it right out of his mouth.

"Please refrain from smoking on this ship. What were you planning to do with the ashes and butt when you were finished? Were you going to toss them into this beautiful ocean? You're a guest on this ship, so you must follow her rules, Mr. Outlaw." He rubbed the cigarette against the pin on Jotaro's hat, spreading ash on the brim. The group all tensed at the scene, knowing the captain had just brought disaster upon himself. Unaware of this impending doom, the captain grabbed Jotaro's jacket and dropped the butt into his pocket. "Understand?" He walked away from Jotaro and back toward the stowaway girl as the teenager put his hands into his pockets.

"Hold it." The captain stopped. "You could have just put it out and been done with it. Don't be a condescending prick about it, you asshole."

Unlike all the other times Jotaro had been rude, Ben had mixed feelings. On the one hand, he understood the guy wanted to keep the ocean clean, but on the other hand, what he just done to Jotaro was too much.

Joseph didn't share this sentiment. "Hey, Jotaro. Quit being rude to the captain. That was your fault."

"Heh. I'm not done being rude just yet," Jotaro said. "That one's not the captain. I figured it out. This guy's the Stand user."

Joseph stared. "Wha…"

"What?!" Ben, Avdol, Kakyoin, and Polnareff said shouted at the same time.

The captain, however, just blinked at Jotaro. "St…Stand? What, pray tell, is that?" He looked at all of them in confusion.

"This is inconceivable, Jotaro!" Avdol said. "Captain Tennille came recommended with verification by the Speedwagon Foundation! He is completely trustworthy! There is not a chance he is a Stand user!"

"Hold on, here," Captain Tennille spoke up. "A Stand? I haven't a clue what you're talking about."

"Jojo," Polnareff said sternly. "Random guesses will only make this more complicated!"

"To be fair, isn't that what you guys were doing with that girl?" Ben pointed out, causing every member apart from Jotaro to flinch at this realization.

Kakyoin was the first to collect himself. "That aside, do you have any proof, Jojo?"

"I figured out how to tell a Stand User from a normal person," Jotaro said to the shock of their group.

"What?!" Joseph exclaimed as Jotaro pointed to his own nose.

"If the Stand user inhales even a little bit of smoke," Jotaro said. "A vein pops up at the tip of their nose."

Joseph, Kakyoin, Avdol, Ben, Polnareff, and Captain Tennille all put their hands on the tips of their noses. The girl, on the other hand, stared at them.

Polnareff turned to Jotaro. "You can't be serious, Jotaro!"

"Yeah, I was lying," Jotaro confessed before rounding on Captain Tennille. "However…it looks like we found our dumbass."

Captain Tennille's jaw dropped and a bead of sweat ran down his face as the others turned to him in shock. The girl looked back and forth between all the males, still trying to figure out what was going on.

The captain quickly got over his shock, removing his hat as he chuckled deeply.

"Jotaro, how did you become suspicious of him?" Joseph asked.

"I was originally going to use this trick with each member of the crew," Jotaro said. "But Ben gave me the idea to test him first."

"Me? What did I do?"

"Earlier when you shouted at him, you accidentally summoned your Stand. It was just for a few seconds, no, probably just one, but I saw him looking directly at Emerald Ace."

Captain Tennille smiled. "You're cold. Goddamn but you're ice cold. I'm not really the captain. The real captain is sleeping with the fishes at the bottom of the ocean in Hong Kong."

Ben's eyes narrowed. "I think it's safe to say this guy probably doesn't have a flesh bud."

"If that's the case," Jotaro pointed at the imposter. "Then I'll make sure you sleep in the depths of Hell!"

Instead of being intimidated by Jotaro's threat, the fake captain smiled wider.

The girl suddenly screamed.

"Oh no!" Joseph, Avdol, Kakyoin, and Polnareff all cried at once.

Standing on the railing, with the girl in its clutches, was what could only be the imposter's Stand. Like Ripjaws, it looked like a fishman with a flat head, four eyes, and blue skin with gills all over its body.

"Trouble on the water! Lies and betrayal! The Moon card, which suggests fear of the unknown," The fake captain said. "Its name: Dark Blue Moon! Even for a guy like me, taking all of you on at once would be a bone-breaking task, which is why my plan was to stay hidden and take all of you out one by one. But since you figured me out, I guess I have no choice. I'll deal with all six of you. Getting my hands on this girl is a sign that my luck is changing for the better. I'll just be jumping into these shark-infested waters with her. Of course you guys will end up following us in. If we fight in the water, where I have the advantage, I can beat all six of you!"

"Wanna bet?" Ben stepped forward. "I'm pretty sure I can take you on all by myself."

'Tennille' frowned at Ben's words. Then he noticed the amused looks on the faces of the others. The fact they all honestly believed that this one boy was a match for him made him angry. "You…I was advised to be careful when dealing with you, because nobody knows what your Stand is capable of. You're saying your Stand is capable of beating mine!"

Ben smiled coolly. "Oh, I'm pretty sure."

"Well, I'm not trying to brag but my Dark Blue Moon is really fast in the water. It can swim more elegantly than any fish in the sea."

"I don't know about elegant, but my Stand's pretty good underwater too."

"Oh really?" The assassin stood on top of the railing. "Why don't we test that out? Follow me…if you're prepared to choke to death on all the seaweed you're about to swallow!" He leaped off the railing, accompanied by his Stand.

"Only if you're prepared to choke on those words I'm about to make you eat!" Ben shouted as he ran toward the railing. "Emerald Ace! Ripjaws!"

Emerald Ace appeared and quickly turned back into Ripjaws and they both leaped over the railing.

"What?!" The fake cried. Ben took advantage of his stunned state and had Ripjaws chomp on Dark Blue Moon's arm. The other Stand released the girl, allowing Ripjaws to grab her and toss her up. Kakyoin summoned Hierophant Green to catch her.

"Ben!" Joseph called as Ben, Ripjaws, the fake Tennille, and Dark Blue Moon disappeared under the water. "Ben!"

. . .

The two users and their aquatic Stands faced each other, blood running from both the arms of Dark Blue Moon and the fake captain. Despite being wounded, the imposter smiled. "I see now. Your confidence, why I was told to be careful with you; Your Stand changed. It looks completely different from when I first saw it. Does your Stand have different forms?"

Ben clamped his jaw shut to save his air. He had to wrap this fight up quick.

"Well?" 'Tennille' goaded. "Stands can communicate even in the ocean. Go ahead and give me that cocky attitude of yours, kid."

Right. Ben thought of what he wanted Ripjaws to say.

"You're going down," Ripjaws said, in that same guttural voice Ben always had when he transformed.

"Going down? Me?" the fake laughed. "You sound more like you're trying to be tough. I know what you're thinking: "How long can this bastard stay underwater? I can probably last about two minutes but can he last longer than me? I'll answer that for you. My lung capacity is three times greater than that of a normal person! I've trained them; I can spend up to six minutes and twelve seconds under water. I bet hearing that number already has you gasping for breath."

The shock of how long he could last had in fact caused Ben to let out some air, causing the hero to clamp a hand over his mouth, which only made 'Tennille' laugh more.

"And that's not all!" Dark Blue Moon swam up to the boat, which was passing over them, and struck the propeller,. "Dark Blue Moon's fins are underwater cutters that move smoother than a ship's propeller!" Dark Blue Moon finished its handiwork and Ben saw the propeller blades had been shredded. This guy wasn't kidding. "And before you get overconfident again, take a good hard look at your Stand."

Ben's eyes widened when he discovered that barnacles had suddenly appeared around Ripjaws' mouth, and more were slowly spreading to his neck and down to his torso. Ben pressed another hand against his mouth as he felt like it was being cut up.

"Dark Blue Moon planted those acorn barnacles the moment its arm was bitten by your Stand. They will start draining your power. I bet you can already feel it slipping away!"

He was right. Ben noticed that his body was becoming weaker. He now saw why this guy was so confident in his Stand's powers, especially underwater. He had to get those barnacles off and fast.

"Guess this is what I get for not thinking things through," Ripjaws said.

The captain laughed. "Giving up already? I guess your confidence was all just an act."

"No, I'm sure I can still beat you," Ripjaws said, infuriating his opponent. "I just didn't want to use this so soon before we reached Dio."

"W-what?"

Ben activated the Ultimatrix. This was going to be a risky move but it was probably his best chance. Ripjaws was his only alien currently best for fighting underwater and he didn't know whether or not going Ultimate would give him an advantage against those acorn barnacles. He slammed the dial down.

"What's going on?!" The imposter shouted as he shielded his eyes from the green light. "What was that thing on your wrist? What is this light? What?!" Once he could see again, his jaw dropped.

Floating beside Ripjaws was the form of Heatblast.

"Y-you can transform too?! Is this the true power of your Stand?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Ripjaws said before grabbing Heatblast's Ultimatrix symbol, creating another flash of green light.

. . .

This development did not go unnoticed by the passengers.

"What's going on?" the girl asked. "What were those flashes of light down there?"

"I think it's happened," Avdol said grimly. "Whatever that enemy user was doing, he must have forced Ben to use the Ultimatrix and then fuse with Emerald Ace."

Polnareff grabbed his head. "Ultimatrix? Fuse? Just what is it you guys know that I don't?!"

"We'll explain later," Avdol said sternly.

. . .

The fake captain's eyes had bugged out and his jaw was hanging open. Before him was Ripjaws with Heatblast's limbs. "You…you merged with your Stand! But how?!"

"I already said, wouldn't you like to know?" Heatjaws said.

The impostor trembled. "This…this is why we were told to take precautions. Not only can you and your Stand both change forms, but you can become one!" Suddenly the fake smiled widely, much to Heatjaw's confusion. "That device on your wrist. That's the key to the transformations, isn't it? When I present that to Lord Dio, he'll be most pleased with me!"

"Yeah, that ain't happening!" Heatjaws grabbed his neck and his arm began to glow. The barnacles began emitting steam before they were blasted from his neck. The false captain had no time to get over his shock when the fused alien then blasted streams of fire at him, barely dodging thanks to the speed of Dark Blue Moon.

"Fire?!"

"As long as I keep the heat on," Heatjaws said, swimming toward Dark Blue Moon and launching another burst of flame the Stand dove away from. "Anyone in the mood for fried fish?"

"Your powers took me by surprise," The phony said. "I'm also impressed that you can use fire even underwater. But let's see if that actually helps you!"

Heatjaws was about to retort when he found himself flung to the side by a powerful force. His body was being flung around like a ragdoll. He thought it was Dark Blue Moon but it was just floating there, seemingly flailing its arms. No. Not flailing its arms…

"Figured it out?" The enemy Stand user taunted. "My Stand wasn't simply dodging your attacks, it was creating an underwater whirlpool! You may be able to breathe underwater and removed those barnacles, but how do you hope to escape this?!"

Heatjaws thrashed wildly as he tried escaping the whirlpool, but Dark Blue Moon swung its arms even faster, increasing the whirlpool's own speed. "It's still too early for me to kill a self-absorbed little punk like you. First I have to make you change back, then I'll cut that gauntlet from your wrist. After I finally kill you, I'll do the same to the others!"

Heatjaws winced as he felt his body suddenly being cut off. He looked down his torso just in time to turn his head from a small, incoming projectile. A scale. He was being cut by Dark Blue Moon's scales.

"And now I'm going to guess what you're thinking next!" 'Tennille' called. "'In a whirlpool, only one spot stays still'. So predictable. "It's the center! If I jump into the center where he is, I can attack him.""

"Actually, I was thinking something else," Heatjaws said, startling his opponent. "I was thinking that I needed to heat things up!" His arms began glowing and the water around him started to bubble.

"What are you…?" 'Tennille' started to ask.

"Let me guess what you're thinking," Heatjaws cut him off. "You're thinking: "Is it getting hot in here?"."

'Tennille' was taken aback by this until he realized that it was starting to get warmer, with more and more bubbles gathering around Heatjaws. 'Tennille' froze. "It can't be…you aren't. You bastard! You're emitting massive amounts of heat! You're boiling the water around you!"

Heatjaws grinned. "I know I asked if anyone was in the mood for fried fish but will boiled do?" Heatjaws' arms glowed brighter, creating an explosion of scalding water that dispersed Dark Blue Moon's whirlpool. 'Tennille' screamed as he felt his own skin being scorched by the hot water.

"What's wrong?" Heatjaws taunted. "Can't take the heat?"

'Tennille' started swimming madly up to the surface.

"Take this!" Heatjaws yelled, unleashing a massive wave of scorching hot water. His enemy's eyes widened as the water hit him, screaming in pain as he was blasted up to the surface.

. . .

On the boat, everyone was waiting frantically. First that whirlpool had formed, now the water was starting to bubble.

"I don't think that's the work of Dark Blue Moon," Avdol said. "Ben must have turned into Heatblast."

"Heatblast?" Kakyoin asked.

"Like Magician's Red, Heatblast specializes in flames and heat. But why would he use a fire alien underwater?"

"Ben has plenty of experience," Jotaro said. "If he used Heatblast underwater, then he knows what he's doing."

Polnareff groaned, slumping against the railing. "I have no clue what you guys are talking about."

A burst of water erupted like a geyser and the others stared as a steaming figure was launched through the air.

Polnareff pointed. "It's the fake captain!"

"Which means…" Joseph said. Three flashes of green light happened in sequence before Ben emerged. "Ben!"

Ben waved up at the others. "Man overboard!"

"Well done defeating that enemy user," Avdol complimented. "Though it seems you were forced to use the full power of Emerald Ace to defeat him."

"Yeah, his Dark Blue Moon had some nasty tricks. I'm just glad I took care of him before he harmed anyone else. Like the real captain."

"Captain Tennille was a good man," Joseph said as he grabbed a life preserver. "But you made that impostor pay for what he did. Now come aboard and…" The boat shook just as he was about to throw it. The deck started to explode, flames spreading across the boat.

"The captain planted bombs!" A sailor cried.

"Shit!" cursed another.

"Everyone, hurry and get to the lifeboats!" Joseph ordered as more and more bombs went off, increasing the fire. "We'll signal a nearby ship for help!"

. . .

Whether by luck or quick action, everyone had managed to evacuate the ship before it was completely destroyed. Right now they were drifting on two lifeboats, everyone quiet and solemn. The thick fog that had rolled in on them didn't help matters. Their situation was so dire that Polnareff wasn't even in the mood to ask Ben about his Stand or his aliens.

Despite their predicament, Joseph gave a helping hand to the girl, who had introduced herself as Anne. He handed her a canteen. "Have some water. We've sent signals for help so someone should be here soon."

Anne took the canteen, looking over the others. "I don't know what in the world is going on but who are you guys?"

"We're on a journey, just like you," Joseph told her with a smile. "Though you're on a journey to see your father while our journey is for my daughter."

Turning away from Joseph, Anne started drinking from the canteen, only to suddenly spit it back out.

"Slow down there!" Joseph cried. "That's good water! Why'd you spit it out?"

Anne pointed to the distance. "E-E-E-E-E-Everyone, look!"

On alert, everyone turned to the direction she was pointing at. Looming over them, cutting through the fog, was a massive freighter.

 **To Be Continued**

 _Our heroes seemed to have their luck turned for the better thanks to a mysterious freighter but they find it to be completely abandoned except for a large, caged up orangutan. Something truly bizarre is happening on board this ship and the group is determined to find out what. Next time on JoJo's Alien Adventure._

 _Yep, Ben finally got in the Stand action. I wouldn't be surprised if some people were a bit put out by him not really doing much in the last two chapters so I hope this makes up for it. Course, I do plan on Jotaro still getting his moments. Though to be fair, Araki himself tended to give the other characters more screen time than Jotaro in Part 3._

 _Thanks for my friend Animeguy1101, I'm changing things up in this story. You'll see more of what I mean as the chapters continue._

 _Having watched the episodes of Part 5, Vento Aureo aka Golden Wind, I'm actually looking forward to when I get to that part of this crossover. It's going to be the most morally ambiguous part of the entire series, plus a lot of the Stands and characters are really cool._

 _That reminds me, I've got a challenge if anyone is interested in writing it. The working title is One Piece: New Wind._

 _Summary: After the events of Part 5, Bruno Bucciarati, Leone Abbachio, and Narancia Ghirga found themselves in the One Piece universe. Having established, and accepted, that they can never return home they decide to make a name for themselves in this world of pirates. Is the world of pirates ready for Stand users? Are the Stand users ready for the weirdness of One Piece?_

 _Anyone interested in accepting this challenge, please contact me._


	5. Strength

**Disclaimer: Ben 10 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure do not belong to me**

 **Thank you, Vandenbz.**

 **Last time, the heroes continued their quest to Egypt by boarding a ship for Singapore. After Ben saved a young stowaway named Anne from a shark, the crew discovered the ship's captain was actually an imposter: User of the aquatic Stand: Dark Blue Moon. Although Ben defeated him as Heatjaws, the imposter had planted timed explosives, forcing everyone to evacuate onto life boats. After drifting at sea, a mysterious freight has arrived.**

 **Stardust Crusaders Part 5: Strength**

Dio Brando, or DIO, as he had started to call himself, was staring into the mirror in his chambers. He was pleased to see how well Jonathan's body seemed to suit him. If not for the jagged scar around his neck in addition to that star mark on his shoulder, no one would ever suspect it was not originally DIO's.

"Enya, I have a question for you." DIO turned to the woman who had introduced him to the existence of Stands. "What is the purpose of living?"

Enya responded immediately. "To obtain one's desire. Simply put, this is the purest reason there is to live. People want money, they want fame, they want food, they want to be loved, they want to make love…"

DIO resumed looking at his reflection. "But when a person attempts to obtain what they desire, mustn't they fight for it, Enya?"

"Certainly."

DIO walked away from the mirror. "If that fight proves fruitless and they fail to obtain what they desire, a feeling from frustration and failure will overcome them."

"It is painful." Enya conceded.

Dio placed a hand on his shoulder, right beside the star mark before placing his hands on his hips. "And they will fear for the coming battles as a result. I believe that conquering fear is what it means to live. The one who stands at the top of the world is the one who feels no fear. Do you understand, Enya?"

"I taught you well about your Stand and how to harness its power," Enya said. "What's more, you also possess an immortal body. Is there something you fear?"

"Possibly." DIO admitted without hesitation.

"What concerns you?"

"The Joestar bloodline," DIO answered.

Enya waved a hand dismissively. "Joestar? Those two? They are mere filth."

"But when the lives of those filth are so deeply entangled with my own, I cannot help but feels that it's destiny," DIO said, his voice rising. "To be more specific, it is not that I fear the Joestars. It is that I cannot take their bloodline lightly. I must remove the Joestars from the cogs of my destiny."

It dawned on Enya where her lord was going with his train of thought. "You've decided to eliminate them yourself simply because you feel that they cannot be underestimated?"

"Indeed."

"Foolishness!" Enya snapped. "You should never engage in such foolishness! You have Empress, Hanged Man, Strength, Wheel of Fortune, Temperance, Emperor, Devil, and the Stand Users who wield them to carry out your will! You needn't worry about taking action yourself, Lord DIO!" She cackled gleefully.

For a moment, DIO was silent. "If it were the Joestars alone, I would be inclined to leave things be." Enya's cackling came to an abrupt stop. "And yet, I cannot help but doubt your assassins."

Enya blinked. "Wh-wh-why would you say that, Lord DIO?! Your servants are powerful Users! Why would you doubt them?"

Dio approached a table. On it was the photographs he had taken earlier. His eyes were fixated on the one depicting Ben talking to Joseph.

Enya scoffed. "Him again? Lord DIO, don't waste your time on him. He's just another Stand User who threw his lot in with the Joestars to stop you."

"But why? The Joestars themselves are obvious, Avdol is a friend of theirs, Kakyoin and Polnareff both joined them after being released from my flesh buds but this boy," DIO narrowed his eyes, as if staring at the photo would provide the answer. "How does he fit into this?"

"It cannot be properly proven, but some believe that Stand Users have a certain…pull towards each other. We are not aware of it but sooner or later we meet others who possess Stands. That, along with your charisma and wealth, attracted so many followers to your cause, Lord DIO," Enya explained. "This boy just happened to be drawn to the Joestars."

DIO continued to stare at Ben's photo. Every time he looked at it, there was a nagging feeling in the back of his skull. Some primal instinct that was telling him there was something about the boy; something that made him almost as dangerous, if not unexplainably more so, than the Joestars. The sensation irked DIO to no end. He knew that there was more to this than simply Stand Users attracting one another and DIO wanted to know why.

Enya noticed this. "Do not work yourself up over this one boy, Lord DIO. The Stand Users I sent will deal with him the same as they will the Joestars."

"So you say, Enya," DIO said, finally taking his eyes off the picture. "Fetch me a television."

Enya gawked. "A…a television?"

"I wish to see what happens for myself," DIO replied as he raised a hand, purple vines slowly emerging from his palm and coiling around his fingers.

Enya sputtered for a minute but quickly regained herself. Bowing low, she made her way out of Lord DIO's chambers. "I still think Lord DIO is worrying far too much. However, if witnessing his followers deal with the Joestars and their friends will give him peace of mind, I shall gladly do as he requests."

* * *

Everyone stared as the massive freighter came to a stop. The ramp was already lowered as the lifeboats drifted towards it. Joseph noticed how Jotaro was eyeing the ramp. "Something on your mind, Jotaro?"

Ben noticed the look on Jotaro's face and felt his body tense. "Let me guess: you think there might be another Stand User on that ship? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised at this point."

"No, I'm just wondering why nobody's shown themselves even though the ramp is down," Jotaro answered.

Ben looked back at the ramp. "Yeah. Shouldn't there be somebody welcoming us?" He also noticed there was nobody in sight, not even someone looking over the side of the boat.

Once the boats neared, Polnareff hopped onto the ramp. "They came all this way to save us! There has to be somebody on board. Even if they're all Stand Users, I'm getting on this ship."

Everyone looked at each other, annoyed by Polnareff's reckless attitude.

"Ben, you have more experience than I do," Jotaro whispered. "Do you think it's a trap?"

"Almost completely positive," Ben said. Everything about this whole situation screamed TRAP! "So far, DIO's only be sending one Stand User at a time after us. Maybe if we can get the drop on them, we can take them down and use this boat to get to Singapore."

"Not a bad idea," Joseph scratched his chin. "But if there is an enemy user, that means we're on their turf now. Everyone keep your guard up."

Soon everyone started ascending the ramp. Ben, Joseph, and Jotaro lagged behind to tend to Anne, who was still in the lifeboat. She was nervous about the imposing freighter, not to mention scared by her past experiences.

In a move that caught Ben off guard, Jotaro held his hand out towards the little girl. "Grab on. I'll help you up."

Ben was so floored by Jotaro's surprising gentleness towards the kid that he nearly stumbled when Anne instead launched herself right at him. Luckily his time as a soccer goalie kicked in and he caught her. Anne threw her arms around Ben's neck and stuck her tongue out at Jotaro. Joseph chuckled at the sight.

"I see that someone has a fan," He teased. Ben frowned at the old man as his cheeks turned slightly pink.

"Good grief," Jotaro said.

* * *

Everyone got to the main deck, finding it just as abandoned as the ramp had been. The hooks of the cranes that littered the ship swayed slightly in the wind. Ben felt goosebumps running down his arms. At first everyone thought that the ship's crew was below deck but once they explored inside, they found it also deserted. There wasn't even anyone at the helm.

"W-what's with this ship?" Joseph asked in near-exasperation. "The captain's not in the pilothouse! And there's no operator in the radio room! There's no one anywhere! But look! The meters and machines are all working just fine!"

Polnareff shrugged. "Maybe they're locked in the bathroom with a bad case of the shits?"

"All at the same time?" Ben asked. He almost considered the possibility that this was some high-tech ship camouflaged as a regular freighter but placed that thought to the side. He needed to think in terms of Stands, not technology. "Is anyone else getting a really bad feeling about this place?"

"Guys!" Anne called, standing next to an open door and pointing into the room. "Over here! Look!" The group joined Anne. Inside the room was a cage where a large primate stared at them. "It's a monkey!"

"Actually it's an orangutan," Kakyoin corrected her.

"A pretty big orangutan," Ben commented. He also didn't like the way it seemed to be leering at them. Did it see them as trespassers or something?

"Who cares about some damn monkey?!" Joseph roared, annoyed at the lack of finding anything useful. "Let's split up and find the guy feeding it!"

One by one the others departed, Ben was the second to last to leave when Anne nearly collided with him. "Anne? What's wrong?"

"S-sorry," Anne stammered. "It's just…" she looked back the orangutan's room. "I just didn't like the way that monkey was looking at me."

Ben's eyes narrowed and he looked back at the door. "Anne, stick close to me okay? I'll make sure nothing happens to you."

Anne nodded and latched onto his arm with an iron grip. Hearing a snort, Ben turned his head to see Joseph and Kakyoin struggling to fight grins on their faces while Jotaro looked as nonchalant as ever. Ben scowled at the former two who shot him looks of amusement before making it back out to the deck.

* * *

Outside, Avdol was with the sailors as they tinkered with some of the machinery.

"How is it?" Avdol asked.

"It's old but…" The lead sailor started to say.

As the others approached them, Joseph stopped, noticing something off about the crane right above Avdol and the sailors. "Avdol! That man is in danger!"

The crane hook swung and Ben only had enough time to cover Anne's eyes as the hook stabbed right into the back of the man's head and out his mouth before being hoisted into the air.

Jotaro noticed that Ben had covered Anne's eyes and gave a brisk nod of approval before focusing on the impaled man. "Good grief. Some way to welcome a girl onto your ship."

The sailors looked at the corpse of their friend in horror. "B-but nobody touched it!"

"The crane moved on its own even though nobody was touching it!"

"T-the crane impaled him on its own!"

"Ben was right! There's someone here!" Joseph addressed the sailors. "Hey! Don't touch any of the machinery! If it moves or runs on electricity, don't lay a finger on it! If you want to live, follow my orders! Don't leave the cabin down below until we say it's okay!"

"Ben," Avdol said to the hero. "If we dealing with a Stand that affects machinery, wouldn't Upgrade be preferable?"

"Upgrade? You guys still haven't told me what's going with Ben's Stand," Polnareff whined.

"That device on Ben's wrist is called the Ultimatrix," Kakyoin said in annoyance. "It grants both Ben and Emerald Ace the power to turn into aliens."

"Eh? Real aliens?" Polnareff looked at the Ultimatrix in shock. "But then, what does Emerald Ace do?"

"Emerald Ace can not only turn into the same aliens as Ben does, but also fuse with Ben," Avdol explained, Polnareff staring at Ben in stunned awe. "Upgrade is an alien who can merge with technology and control it."

"Problem is, if this person's Stand can control technology, I don't know how powerful he'll be compared to Upgrade." Ben admitted.

"There's also a possibility he'll try to control Upgrade himself," Kakyoin added.

"So we need to find the User and take them out," Joseph concluded.

Ben realized that Anne was still holding onto his arm. "Anne, you should go down with the sailors. It's not safe up here."

"I want to go with you," Anne said, looking up at Ben pleadingly.

"Anne, please. It's dangerous."

"You told me that you'd make sure nothing happens to me," Anne gripped his arm tighter. "How can you do that if you're not there?"

"Oh for…" Joseph scratched his head.

Oh my, my," Polnareff crossed his arms with a smirk. "Are you always this popular with the ladies, Ben?"

"…Shut up," Ben answered his French friend dryly. "Look, Anne…"

"Go with her to the cabin, Ben," Jotaro said, surprising everyone.

"Jotaro?"

"The five of us should be enough to deal with whoever this Stand User is," Jotaro said. "Besides, it's obvious the enemy doesn't care who they kill in order to get to us."

Realizing the implications of Jotaro's words, Ben nodded. "Okay, Anne. I'll take you to the cabin."

Anne smiled with a giggle as she and Ben went back inside the ship. As they were leaving, Joseph spoke. "Now, did anyone catch a glimpse of a Stand just then?"

As each of his friends answered in the negative, Ben thought over what happened. He hadn't seen anything either. The crane really did appear to move on its own yet none of them saw anything. Maybe the Stand was long range like Hierophant Green. If that was the case then the whole ship was a death trap. They needed to find a way to lure the User out.

Ben was so busy in thought; he didn't realize that Anne was leading him until he heard the sound of a door opening. He noticed that they were back in the orangutan's room. He eyed the primate, who was now tapping at the lock to his cage. "Sorry, pal, we don't have the key to your cage. We wouldn't even know where to look."

The orangutan snorted at Ben before holding something out to Anne. It was half an apple. "That's weird," Anne said. "It looks like it was cut with a knife but the color hasn't changed yet. Someone cut it recently. So that means there is someone else on this ship right?"

"Unless he did it himself," Ben asked as he looked around the cage for a knife. "Orangutans and other apes are said to be almost as smart as humans. Maybe he was trained to cut his own food."

The orangutan snarled at Ben, as if taking offense at his comment. Then, as if to prove otherwise, he produced a cigarette and match. Ben and Anne watched as the orangutan plopped the cigarette into his mouth, lit it after striking the match, and began enjoying a smoke.

"Wow, you're right, Ben," Anne said in amazement. "He really is a smart monkey."

"Orangutan, Anne," Ben gently corrected as the orangutan pulled something else out. It was a magazine. Ben was about to comment on the orangutan being able to read…until he saw the title: Playboy. As if that wasn't enough, the orangutan put the magazine sideways and pulled out a centerfold picture. He tilted his head with a clearly fascinated look. Anne flinched back.

"Y-you're a monkey but you find pinup human girls…" She gulped. "Attractive?"

The orangutan stopped ogling the pinup picture to look at Anne, who was starting to feel even more uncomfortable than before. Ben stood in front of her, glaring hard at the orangutan.

"Don't even think about it, Banana Brain."

The orangutan's eyes narrowed and a growl resonated from its throat. Ben's glare never wavered. Anne looked back and forth between the staring contest, wondering if something was going to happen.

Just then some of the sailors burst into the room.

"Hey be careful!" One of them warned. "They say orangutans have five times the strength of a human so it could rip your arms off with ease. Come on, you two can stay with us in the other room."

"O-okay," Anne mumbled, relieved to be out of the room. Ben looked back at the cage. If that primate tried doing anything to Anne, he'd gladly introduce him to Four Arms or Diamondhead.

* * *

As the sailors filed into the cabin, Ben decided that this was the perfect time to slip away. He felt bad leaving Anne but the sooner they found the Stand User, the better. Though it was going to be easier said than done, as Ben explored the hallways, expecting the User or their Stand to jump out from every door he passed.

"With a ship this big, how are we supposed to sniff him out?" Ben snapped his fingers. "Hey that's it! Sniff him out!" Ben mentally pictured just the alien he wanted. Emerald Ace materialized and activated its Ultimatrix. After the flash faded a large, doglike creature with orange fur but lacking eyes, ears, or a nose stood before him. Instead, it had gills on the sides of its head. "Find him, boy."

The alien, Wildmutt, began prowling around the ship with Ben right behind it. Despite the lack of facial features, Wildmutt had incredible hearing and smelling. The Stand User could run but they would not be able to hide. Unfortunately Wildmutt was having trouble picking up any additional scents of a living being. Wildmutt searched and searched but seemed confused.

"Nothing?" Ben asked incredulously. Wildmutt whimpered and shook its head. Ben was stunned to see his Stand actually communicate with him but quickly regained himself. "So the User's not below deck?" When Wildmutt shook its head again, Ben shoved his hands into his pockets. "The User has to be on deck then. We'd better get back there and help Jotaro and the others find them. With all six of us ganging up on them, there's no way this guy stands a chance."

As the two started making their way back, Wildmutt froze. Ben turned towards his Stand who started growling.

"What is it?" Ben asked. "Found the User?" Wildmutt dashed forward with Ben quickly following. He didn't know what range his Stand had and had wondered if it varied with each alien. Either way, Ben was right on Wildmutt's tail as the Vulpimancer dashed through the hall. Ben realized they were nearing the cabin the sailors were at when Wildmutt stopped at the door, his growls louder. Ben began sweating. Was the User in there? Those sailors…Anne…Ben ran to the door but the sight before him stopped him cold.

They were dead. All the sailors were dead. Their bodies were gathered around a radio they had been trying to use, each of them horribly mangled.

"Joseph told you not to mess with the machinery," Ben muttered, angered by the gruesome sight. The enemy User was not going to get away with this. Then he noticed something. "Anne? Where's Anne?" He looked to Wildmutt. "Find her!"

Wildmutt barked in compliance, lowering his head to the ground. Letting out another bark, he started running again. Ben practically flew after his Stand, hoping that Anne was still alright.

* * *

Anne clutched her towel tightly as the orangutan loomed over her. While the sailors had been tinkering with the cabin radio, she had decided to take a shower after noticing how bad she smelled. She felt so relaxed that she had forgotten Ben had disappeared. Then the shower curtain was pulled back and Anne saw it was the orangutan, having somehow left his cage. The animal was looking at her the same way he had earlier and Anne trembled. He reached towards her as if preparing to take her towel. Even if an orangutan was five times stronger than a human, she really wanted Ben here. Anne screamed, the orangutan howling as he made to grab her.

"Hey!" Anne was ready to cry in relief as Ben faced the orangutan. "Get away from her!"

The orangutan growled, angry at Ben for interrupting him. He was ready to attack when Wildmutt tackled him, the two wresting all across the floor. Wildmutt raked a claw against the orangutan's chest, who responded by throwing Wildmutt into the wall, caving in some of the ship's lockers. Ben staggered, feeling the same pain as his Stand.

"Ben!" Anne called. "Are you alright?"

Ben winced as he got back to his feet, rubbing his side. "That's gonna take some getting used to."

"Huh?"

The orangutan took advantage of the Stand's downed state to leap at him, ready to tear him apart. But Wildmutt kicked off the ground and collided with him in midair. The two resumed their wrestling match.

"He can see Wildmutt," Ben said with a frown. "All this time, the orangutan was the Stand User. Animals can have Stands?"

"What is going on?!" Anne cried, clutching her towel, her eyes watering. "The monkey's rolling around on the ground and he suddenly has a cut!"

Ben tried to reassure her that everything was okay but froze and turned his head when he saw the poor girl was wearing nothing but a towel. "Everything's going to be fine, Anne. Get out of here, get dressed and then get to Jotaro! Tell him I found who we were looking for!"

Anne mutely nodded her head and tried to leave. The orangutan noticed this. Pipes suddenly materialized from the wall and shot towards Anne. She cried out as she was pinned to the wall.

Ben was floored by this sudden attack. "What the…" Just then the ceiling fan broke off and spun towards Ben, who's soccer reflexes allowed him to dodge out of the way as it lodged itself into the wall. Ben barely had time to get his wits together when the fan pried itself free and flew towards him. Ben was about to activate the Ultimatrix when he suddenly stumbled. He looked down and realized his feet were sinking into the floor. This sudden distraction prevented him from activating the Ultimatrix in time.

Wildmutt, realizing its User was in danger, grabbed the orangutan and flung him into the door to another hallway, knocking the door right off its hinges. Wildmutt quickly grabbed the fan by its sides and completely crushed it so it couldn't be a threat anymore. The transformed Stand grabbed Ben and pulled him out of the floor. The moment his feet were free, it hardened again as if it had never changed.

"Thanks, buddy," Ben said appreciatively. Wildmutt then walked over to Anne and pried the pipes off her. Ben quickly pulled her away in case something else attacked. "Stick close to me, Anne. So, he doesn't just control machinery, he can control any part of this ship. We need to get off this boat now!"

Ben guided Anne as they left the shower room. The moment they stepped out, one of the windows shattered and the shards flew towards Ben and Wildmutt. The alien Stand scooped both Ben and Anne up and leaped over the shards. A deep grunting made Ben turn around. The orangutan was back, howling at him. Wildmutt lunged to attack but the orangutan was starting to merge with the wall, completely disappearing before Wildmutt could reach him. The alien's claws slashed the wall but nothing indicated that the ape had been hit.

"Okay, that's a little unfair," Ben said as he looked around. This whole place was one big death trap. Ben thought of something. If the orangutan had been in his cage when he killed the first sailor, he didn't need to be in the same spot as his victims. Were Jotaro and the others okay on deck? Or were they fighting off other parts of the ship?

The whole ship started shaking, Ben darted his head back and forth, expecting the orangutan to attack him again. Metal pipes wrapped around his leg, slamming him to the floor before pulling him and Wildmutt back into the wall. The hero and his Stand struggled against their bindings as the orangutan appeared out of another wall. This time he was dressed like an admiral, smoking a pipe. The orangutan then held up an open book to Ben, his finger on a specific spot. Wondering what the orangutan wanted him to read, Ben eyed the page, discovering that it was a dictionary. He saw the word the ape's finger was on:

 _Strength: Force, Energy, Power, Aid, Strong, Powerful, Intensity, Firmness, the eight card of the Tarot deck. It suggests challenge, powerful will, and hidden instinct._

"Strength," Ben looked up at the orangutan as he tinkered with a Rubik's cube. "So that's the name of your Stand. Can you just affect the ship…or is the ship itself your Stand?"

The orangutan held up two fingers and nodded. Ben tilted his head, thinking that his enemy was giving him a peace sign. Then it dawned on him. "The second question. The ship itself is the Stand. But everybody can see it. How can your Stand be visible to regular people?"

The orangutan snickered, which Ben could tell that he was being mocked. "You're still on about me saying you're almost as smart as a human, aren't you?" The orangutan raised a brow, eyeing the pipes that bound Ben and Wildmutt before smiling smugly.

With a heave, Wildmutt wrenched his arms free, only to feel more pipes emerge from the wall and wrap him up again. The ape snickered as he held up the completed Rubik's cube, sneering at Ben before crushing it. Afterwards he began howling in laughter. Typical, the orangutan thought that he had already won because he was smart. Confident in his victory, he turned his attention to Anne. She trembled as the orangutan huffed heavily through his nose, licking his lips.

"Dude!" Ben shouted, having enough of the ape's crush on Anne. "Go find a nice female orangutan to get rejected by!"

The orangutan growled as he eyed Ben out of the corner of his eye. Ben half-expected him to summon a metal pipe over his mouth. He needed to do something fast. He couldn't reach his Ultimatrix and Emerald Ace couldn't reach his either. Luckily, he and Wildmutt were close enough that if he just reached a little, he could activate Emerald Ace's for him. Gritting his teeth, Ben stretched out his hand as far as he could. Wildmutt, seeing his User reach for him, tried to shift his body towards Ben as best he could. The moment Ben's fingers came in contact with the Ultimatrix, spikes jutted out from the symbol as a green light coursed through Wildmutt's body. His fur shifted to a maroon-red and he now sported spikes that ran down his back, overlapping so they looked like a large fin. Wildmutt had also grown a long tail with a horn at the end. The orangutan staggered back at the sudden transformation.

"Ultimate Wildmutt! Man, been a while since I did that!" Ben grinned at his shocked opponent. "Time to stop monkeying around!"

Ultimate Wildmutt's new tail, which wasn't immobilized, sliced through the pipes with ease. He kicked off the wall and shot toward the orangutan. Being much stronger and faster than his previous form, Ultimate Wildmutt clenched his fist and punched the ape so hard that his nose started bleeding. Then he attacked again, striking the primate in the stomach with so much force that he toppled over, clutching his gut and falling to his knees. Weakly picking himself up, the orangutan tore his shirt open and held up his arms, whimpering nervously. Ben frowned, realizing that the ape was trying to surrender to him.

"Not so tough when the other guy can fight back huh?" He taunted the orangutan coldly. "After everything you've done…you really think I'm gonna easy on you?!"

The ape screeched in fright as Ultimate Wildmutt charged. He grabbed the enemy Stand User and threw him into the wall. He picked him up again and slammed him into the floor next. Then he slammed him into the other wall. For a grand finale, Ultimate Wildmutt heaved him overhead before throwing him further down the hallway, the primate's body crashing into one of the doors so hard that it was knocked right off its hinges.

Ultimate Wildmutt slowly approached, waiting to see if the orangutan would attack again. But as Ultimate Wildmutt neared the next hallway, he frowned. "What's wrong?" Ben asked, catching up with his Stand. Then he saw what was bothering his Stand. The ape was gone! At this range Ultimate Wildmutt would have sensed him even if he was disappearing into the ship. Where did he go?

The ship started shifting again. He could feel it all around him. The ship was shaking and bending. And it seemed to be getting smaller. Ultimate Wildmutt gulped. The ship was getting smaller. "Anne, we need to get out of here!"

"B-but I need my clothes!" Anne protested.

"…Oh. Hurry and get dressed! I don't know how long we've got!"

* * *

Fortunately Anne was able to get dressed quickly enough for her and Ben to escape the deck. The others turned and stared when they saw Ben and Anne accompanied by a large, red dog creature. Although they saw the Ultimatrix symbol, there was no guess what it could have been.

"What alien is that?" Polnareff asked.

"Get to the lifeboats!" Ben shouted at them.

"Everyone step on it!" Joseph ordered the others as they dashed to the lifeboats. With the remaining sailors all dead, they only needed one, which they quickly hopped aboard. Ultimate Wildmutt hung onto the boat, kicking his feet to put some distance between them and the freighter. Once they were far enough away, he turned back into Wildmutt, and then Emerald Ace, shocking the others. Before anyone could ask, Anne noticed something new happening to the freighter.

"I can't believe it," She muttered as the ship continued shrinking. "It's changing shape. It's turning into a puny little boat."

"So, Ben," Jotaro said. "The orangutan was the User?"

"It was," Ben said as he watched the once massive freighter become smaller and less imposing. He wasn't surprised at Jotaro figuring out the User's identity. He was cool like that. "That orangutan was the User of the Strength Stand."

"Incredible," Avdol said. "That ape used its own Stand to get this far out into the ocean. What terrifying power. This is the first time I have encountered such energy."

By now the great freighter was gone and in its place was a little dingy.

"So the Strength Stand created a huge boat from that?" Ben asked, staring at the dingy.

"A Stand that gives off so much energy that it can be seen by regular humans," Kakyoin observed as he ran a comb through his hair.

"We were completely overwhelmed," Joseph said with a hand over his mouth. "If Ben hadn't defeated him, we would have been done for."

Ben looked at Joseph. "You guys were attacked too?"

"We still thought the User was hiding somewhere on the ship, so I sent Hierophant Green to search every nook and cranny," Kakyoin said. "I recalled it when I couldn't find anything. The next thing we all knew, we were being pulled into the ship itself. It was giving us so much pressure that we couldn't call our Stands."

"I did something similar," Ben said. "I used Wildmutt to try and track down the User because they had to have left a scent somewhere on board. He couldn't smell anything, so I figured that meant the User was on the deck. On our way back, Wildmutt smelled something and led me to the cabin. The orangutan had killed all the sailors. I was worried about Anne so I had Wildmutt find her. He led me to the shower room and there was the orangutan."

"And then it dawned on you that maybe," Jotaro said as he lit a cigarette. "The orangutan was the User after all."

Ben nodded. "I'm just glad I was able to stop him from getting to Anne."

Anne's face became fearful as she remembered what happened and she scooted a little closer to Ben.

Joseph scowled deeply. "That damn monkey was going to kill a little girl?"

"He…wasn't going to kill her…" Ben said darkly. Anne clutched her shirt tightly and shook.

Polnareff was the first to realize what Ben meant. His eyes became cold. "No…"

Anne huddled against Ben, her shaking increased as she let out a sniffle.

Jotaro remained stoic but there was a subtle, yet dangerous gleam in his eye. "Damn ape."

Joseph was worried. "What? What was it?"

"He-he found human girls attractive," Anne whimpered. Ben gently put an arm around her.

By now the rest of the group was grimacing at this news, easily figuring out what the orangutan had tried to do.

"Poor girl," Joseph said gently. "Good thing you were there, Ben."

"If I knew what that monkey was trying to pull, I would have skewered him," Polnareff growled.

"You would have to get in line, Polnareff," Kakyoin said tensely. "I would have had Hierophant Green strangle him."

"Unfortunately for both of you," Avdol interjected. "If I had gotten there first, there would have been nothing left but ashes."

Anne looked at the men, surprised by their protectiveness towards her. Joseph noticed her expression and smiled kindly.

"Don't worry, Anne," He said softly. "We're the good guys. Ben already promised that nothing bad would happen to you. So neither will we."

Anne rubbed her eye, smiling back at Joseph.

"There's one problem though," Ben spoke up. "I sent him flying into another part of the ship, but when I got there to continue the fight, he just disappeared."

Joseph got to his feet, rocking the boat. "What? That monkey could still be out there?!"

"But the ape's Stand was disabled," Polnareff pointed out. "If you didn't defeat him, why did he cancel out his Stand?"

"Was the orangutan so scared of Ben that he let him win?" Avdol suggested. "Just to avoid further punishment?"

"I have no idea," Ben admitted. "I mean, he did show me his belly and pleaded for surrender when Emerald Ace got the upper hand as Ultimate Wildmutt?"

Everyone stared at him. "Ultimate Wildmutt?" Jotaro repeated. "The red form your dog took?"

Ben rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, the Ultimatrix has this feature where it can turn my guys into Ultimate forms."

"Ultimate forms?" Polnareff rubbed his forehead. "So you cannot only fuse with your Stand, you can make yourself even stronger?"

"To be fair, that's the first time I've ever had one of my original guys go Ultimate," Ben looked at the Ultimatrix. "I was so caught up with using my Stand that I nearly forgot about it."

Jotaro spoke up. "So does this mean that ape is still out there?"

"Probably," Joseph looked back at the dingy as it floated farther and farther away from them. "But now that we know what his Stand can do, we will not be caught off guard again."

Anne flinched at the idea of running into the orangutan a second time but Ben gave her an encouraging smile and her fears faded. As long as she had Ben, she had nothing to fear.

"That monkey aside, do you think we'll encounter Stands even more powerful and twisted than his?" Joseph wondered.

"Want some gum?" Polnareff asked him, as if to take their minds off such things.

Ben leaned back in the boat. "What I wouldn't give for a smoothie right now."

"I suppose we shall be drifting again," Avdol said.

"Good grief," Jotaro grumbled. "My cigarettes are all soaked."

"There'll be plenty of time for them to dry in the sun, Jojo," Polnareff told him.

"We'll just have to pray we get rescued and reach Singapore safely," Joseph said.

"Emerald Ace and I could always go alien and try to get us to land," Ben offered.

"A good idea but let's consider the best way to do it first," Joseph said. "That way we don't land ourselves in a worse situation."

"In the meantime," Polnareff said. "Can you all finally tell me Ben's whole story?"

Ben laughed, his mood brightening. "Alright, Polnareff. It all started when I was ten years old…

* * *

Enya stared as the purple vines from DIO's hands removed themselves from the television set. Her body quaked as she looked over at her lord, sweat running her forehead like raindrops.

"It seems that boy is not mere filth as you said he was," DIO said so softly, it was almost a whisper.

Enya fell to her knees. "L-Lord DIO! This boy is unlike any other I have ever seen before!"

"Indeed," DIO said, freezing Enya. "I knew there was something special about that boy but not even I, DIO, could have fathomed his true capabilities."

"A device that grants him the forms and powers of aliens, combined with a Stand," Enya would have grit her teeth if she still had any left. "I can see why he would be an annoyance."

"An annoyance, Enya? Oh I think he is more than that."

Enya looked up at her master. "Lord DIO?"

"Not only can he take the forms of these aliens but he can also make them even more powerful."

"An unknown amount of aliens, the power to combine them and enhance them," Enya nodded, assuming that Lord DIO wanted the boy dead now more than ever. "I will make sure that boy is absolutely eliminated!"

"No."

Enya nearly choked on her saliva. "N-no?"

"No," DIO said sternly. "That boy is more valuable to me alive."

"Va-va-valuable?! Lord DIO, what value could he possibly have? I'll admit that device of his is of some slight interest…"

"Oh yes, that device of his is interesting," DIO said, running a finger under his chin. "But it is that feature of his device, the one that turns his aliens into these so-called Ultimate forms that intrigues me."

"What do you mean? Why that feature?"

DIO smiled, his fangs seeming to glisten in the dim lighting. "I want that power for my own."

Enya gasped. "Lord DIO…"

"Think of it, Enya," DIO said. "If I can get my hands on that Ultimatrix and use its power for myself, I shall become even greater than I already am!"

Enya leaned on her cane as the thought overwhelmed her. She still believed that DIO was unbeatable. There was no one who could possibly stand up to a Stand like his. Yet, if he was able to access the boy's power and use it on himself…

Two words softly escaped her lips. "Ultimate DIO…"

DIO, who heard her clear as day, chuckled. His fanged smile grew. Ultimate DIO. Yes, he liked the sound of that.

Enya bowed. "Your will be done, Lord DIO. I shall have that boy and his Ultimatrix brought to you. And by any means necessary, he will give you the power that only you are worthy of!" DIO leaned back on his seat, pleased with this declaration. He looked forward to meeting this boy, this Ben Tennyson.

DIO licked his lips. He looked forward to it indeed. Then something occurred to him.

"Enya, what do you think happened to Forever?"

Enya shook her head. "I'm not sure, Lord DIO. Forever was scared of the boy, certainly. Perhaps he allowed the Joestars and their allies to think they defeated him so he could attack them later?"

"Perhaps," DIO said. "If that is the case, Forever better not fail again."

Enya frowned. The boy had not killed Forever but it seemed that the orangutan had in fact disappeared. Where could he have gone to?

 **To Be Continued**

 _After their adventures at sea, the gang finally make it to Singapore. Unfortunately they don't have time to relax as more enemies start popping up. But what's more, they seem to be targeting Ben? Will Ben find out that DIO is after his Ultimatrix? Will he be able to fight off the enemy Users? Find out in the next chapter._

 _Be honest, any of you were worried that I forgot about the Ultimate Aliens? I don't blame you. I hadn't forgotten but I was caught up in using fused aliens that I realized I had shoved the Ultimate forms to the sides._

 _So, DIO was right to be concerned about Ben but he still doesn't know everything he is capable of. I do acknowledge that the first few chapters have basically been following the plot of Stardust Crusaders but that's because those chapters didn't really have anything that could really be altered. Sure, I could have had the group fly to Egypt by Upgrade merging with the plane but the whole part of Stardust Crusaders was the journey to Egypt, not just Egypt itself._

 _Trust me though, while some parts will be more or less the same, we are going to mix up a lot of the JoJo series. I won't spoil anything so you'll have to wait and see. And before anyone asks, yes, Forever disappearing after his battle with Ben is going to have a lot of significance further down the road._

 _Oh, one minor note. Anne does have a crush on Ben but nothing is going to come of it. It's just something for the others to tease Ben about. Speaking of crushes, Jolyne is definitely looking as Ben's love interest. I was tempted to have it where Ben got into a three way relationship with both Trish and Jolyne but I decided against. Jolyne and only Jolyne it is. As such, I'm going to do my best to expand Ben and Jotaro's friendship in the other parts so that when we get to Stone Ocean, we can have a moment like Jotaro saying Ben is the only man he trusts his daughter with. I'll also see what I can do to give Joseph more screen time. Like some reviewers, I do believe it was pointless to just shove Joseph to the side, especially since Jotaro didn't get much focus in Stardust Crusaders anyway. But he will still get his time to shine. I could always have Joseph serve as a grandfather substitute for Ben due to missing Grandpa Max but these are all ideas that just came into my head. I'll consult my collaborators and see what they think._

 _That's all I have for now. See you all next chapter._


End file.
